Amity Laid in Ruins
by mediahybrid117
Summary: Not only did he have to fight ghosts, but now he, Sam, Jazz and Tucker had to fight zombies. First submission, not my first fic. Fairly bloody, and quite a few curses so Rated T. Finished! And as much as I love the them, I don't own Danny Phantom or L4D2. Constructive critcism allowed. Please review and let me know what you think.
1. Chapter 1: First Infection

Danny and Jazz walked in the front door and dropped their bags. While Jazz went to the kitchen to check on her Dad to see his progress on his new 'invention,' Danny went to his room the change out of his shirt that was soiled due to Dash's new 'creative' way on bullying him; throwing him into the trash can full of yesterday's lunch. On his way to his room, he heard crying coming from his parents' room. He stopped and listened for a while. He knew his mother was sick. But being depressed on top of it all? He shook his head and went back downstairs. "Hey, Dad? Mom's crying, you might, uh… check on her?" he pointed his thumb to the stairs.

Jack looked up at his son, "Maddie's crying?" he dropped what he was doing and started for the stairs. Danny followed close behind to make sure she was okay, and maybe hear why his Mom was so upset. Jack opened the door to his bedroom gently and quietly, "Maddie? Sweetie? What's wrong?" he asked.

Danny leaned over and stood on his toes to see past Jack. All he could make of his mother was her hunched form sitting over on her bed, her skin pale with the recent 'Green Flu' outbreak. But it was her hands that caught his attention. Extended from each finger, was a claw about six inches long each. Before he could figure anything else, his father was in his line of sight again, "Wait here, I'll talk to her." He hushed and quietly closed the door behind him. "Maddie, honey?" Danny heard again. He had a gut feeling things were going to go downhill and fast. There was a moment of silence. He assumed that Jack had given her a hug and calmed her down, like he would do for Sam if she were upset.

However, he was wrong. Dead wrong. Before he and Jazz knew it, a shrill shriek cut the silence like a knife through hot butter and Jack yelled in terror. There was a loud thud that hit the door as pained cries of agony rattled the house. Danny tried opening the door, but had no such luck. "Dad?" he called fearfully.

There was silence. Danny's stomach twisted in suspense, not knowing what had happened in there, and not knowing if either of them were okay. Behind him, he heard hesitant footsteps making their way up to meet with him, "Danny, what happened?" Jazz's voice asked, "Is Dad o-" she paused and screamed in horror.

Danny whipped around to make sure his sister was alright, but she looked as though she'd seen a ghost, other than him, that is. She stared wide-eyed at the ground by his feet and covered her mouth, eyes widened and watered from fear. He turned around and looked at the ground, finding that he'd been standing in a puddle of fresh blood that started from his parents' room. He stood in a stunned silence. Mixed emotions rose up from his stomach and made him want to throw up. He stepped away and stared at the door.

"Danny…" Jazz whimpered, "What happened in there?" she asked, barely staying above a whisper.

Danny looked at her in fear and looked back at the door. "I don't think I want to know…" he said.

"Well…" she swallowed hard, "Whose blood is that?"

"I don't want to know." He said, although, he was sure it was his Dad's. He was the one in pain.

"Well, you're the ghost-kid. Check." She said.

"You're the more mature one." He snapped back at her.

She took a deep, shaking breath and took hold of the doorknob. She gave Danny one nervous look before turning the knob and giving the door a push. However, the door didn't budge. "Something's on the other side." She said.

Danny rolled his eyes. He gave her a look and went intangible. He stuck his head through the door for a second before stepping back out and losing his lunch. He coughed and vomited again.

Jazz almost didn't want to ask, but she made him go in, it may as well not be for nothing. "What is it?"

"It _was_ Dad." He said shakily, "He's… he's dead…" he threw up again.

Keeping her distance, Jazz stood and watched him. She was at a loss for words.

"And Mom…" he breathed, "She's… gone." He coughed, "That's not Mom anymore…"

"Wait, what do you mean, it's not Mom?" Jazz asked.

"You remember… seeing those news reports where if the Green Flu gets bad enough, they turn into… I guess a zombie?" he looked at her with distant blue eyes.

She nodded hesitantly. "Mom's…"

"Mom's a zombie…" he said.

"We- we have to get out of here!" she exclaimed, "We have to evacuate." She started running downstairs.

"Jazz!" Danny jumped off the second floor and landed in front of her on the bottom step, "We have to stay calm." He grabbed her shoulders. "Let's get to the van, we'll figure things out from there. If Mom ends up getting out of that room, she won't be able to get into the van, so we'd be safe." He said.

Jazz, for a split second, was proud that her little brother was keeping his head better than she was. But in fighting ghosts and most of them either bigger or faster than him, he had to keep from panicking. If anything, he would be the one to lead her for once. She swallowed and nodded, "Okay."

The opened the front door and saw people running down the streets for their lives with rabid people hot on their heels. Danny took a deep breath and kept his sister on his side where he could protect her when he made the ten-foot trek to his Dad's company van. He tried the doors and found them locked.

"Oh, no." Jazz whimpered, "And Dad had the keys." She said, seeing that Danny tried the locked doors.

"No problem." He went intangible and pulled her inside to safety. He sat her down in one of the back seats.

"So what's the plan?" she asked.

Danny shuffled through the van to find anything they could use as a weapon. He growled in frustration. "For one, you're going to stay in here."

"Where are you going?" she demanded.

"I'm gonna go find Sam and Tucker." He said. "You'll be safe in here. I'm going to go get them and bring them back here so they're safe."

Jazz looked at him for a while, watching how serious he was and seeing the fear hidden in his eyes. She nodded, "Okay."

"Don't open the door to anyone." He said, "I'll be back." His body was scanned by the two, telltale rings before he was changed to the Ghost Boy. His plasmatic green eyes glanced at her almost apologetically before he phased through the van and took off. He flew in the direction people were running from. It looked to him like a river of panic, streaming down several streets and finally pooling down at an apparent Evac Center. When he stopped and studied the site for a while, he considered the next part of the plan. He turned around and kept flying to the fast-food restaurant that he and his friends always went to. He thought seriously about this plan. "Get Sam and Tucker to the van, have Jazz drive us the evac site." He said to himself. Then he saw a wave of the rabid people running after everyone one else. He thought twice, "Or wait out the panic." He said, thinking about the safety of his friends and sister. He gasped when he saw what was left of Nasty Burger. He'd completely forgotten. He was supposed to meet Sam and Tucker for Sam's birthday, but didn't make it there because of what had happened at home. He knew for a fact that Sam was going to be mad at him. He hoped she'd understand… if he'd find her. The lot was abandoned. Walls were demolished, as though a wrecking ball had gone through it. Tables were flipped and chairs were thrown on the power lines. How they made it up there, he didn't want to know. Then he froze at the sight of a car stuck out of the roof of the restaurant. He landed by the front doors that seemed nonexistent now. "Sam?" he called. "Tucker!" he cupped his hands around his mouth and called, "Guys? Where are you?" he called. He stepped inside and began trembling at the sight of the remains of whatever massacre had gone on in there. He had a sinking feeling that his friends were among them. He hoped he was wrong. He wanted so badly to be wrong.

"Danny?" a terrified voice called from under several tables.

A wave of relief washed over him. He ran to the pile of tables that towered in the corner where Sam and Tucker huddled up. "Guys!" he breathed, "I can't tell you how happy I am to see you." He smiled.

Sam crawled out from under the table and slapped him as hard as she could, "You jerk! You were late!" she snapped, "Where were you? You promised you'd be here an hour ago.

He didn't realize it'd been that long since he'd gotten out of school. He gave her an apologetic look. "Look, Sam. I-" he started.

"Don't give me those ghost eyes, Danny. You knew very well that you were supposed to be here." She was on the verge of tears. "Where were you?" she repeated.

Danny looked down for a moment and thought about what had stalled him, almost making him throw up again. "I'll have Jazz explain…" he said lifelessly.

Sam's expression changed.

"Danny…" Tucker stepped forward, "What happened?"

Danny wrapped his arm around each of them and flew up, taking them back in the direction of his sister and his Dad's van. He phased through the van and set the two on the floor inside. He still didn't speak. Sam and Tucker were confused. Tucker turned and saw Jazz with her face buried in her hands. He knelt in front of her while Sam put her arm around Danny, "Jazz, what happened?" he asked sincerely.

"She was crying…" Jazz gasped, "And when Dad went to check on her, she attacked him. We didn't see anything; I was downstairs and Danny was outside the door. He was the one who saw the remains…" she cried softly.

"Wait," he took each side of her face and made her look up at him, "What?"

"My Mom's one of them, and my Dad's dead." She said flatly.

Tucker froze and heard Danny crying quietly behind him. Sam gently hushing him and trying to reassure him that things will be okay, he'd changed back to his human form at that point. He looked down, then back up at her tear-filled eyes. He pulled her in for a hug, "I'm so sorry…" he said. He didn't know what to tell the siblings. All he could do is keep Jazz close and try to comfort her from her recent losses. There was a few moments in the van where it was about Danny and Jazz. Not the panic outside. Not the wreckage of Nasty Burger. Not even Sam's birthday. Sam had even completely forgotten her birthday. When they'd finally recollected themselves, Danny wiped his eye, and Jazz sniffled, "So, Danny, what's the plan? When are we evacuating?" Jazz asked.

"Evacuating would be a bad idea. At least right now it is." He said.

"What? Why?" Jazz asked.

"Jazz, have you seen outside? The streets are packed with people and… whatever they are- zombies, for all we know. If we go to the evacuation site right now, then odds are, we'll get attacked." He said. "We'll wait here for things to die down a bit, then you'll drive us out of here." He said.

"That's it? That's your plan?" Tucker asked.

"Got a better one?" Danny asked, he obviously lacked patience.

Tucker thought for a moment and saw the hardened look in his eyes, "Fine. We'll wait." He sat down next to Jazz, "And what if things _don't_ die down?" he asked.

Danny shrugged, "I don't know." He said. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes.

"Danny?" Sam called, about two hours later. "Danny, Danny, Danny! Wake up."

He jumped up and looked at her, "What's wrong?" Sam pushed her finger to her lips and pointed at the window, where one of the 'zombies' was walking by. They'd been staring out the window this whole time, but they hadn't seen a zombie like such before.

He stood as tall as the van and about as wide. His legs were the size of a regular human's, however, the arms were almost the thickness of garbage cans, and his chest and back bulged with mutated muscles. As he beat his fists into the ground, he roared and turned to the side, just enough to see his jawless face.

"Oh my god, it's Dash." Danny said.

"Danny!" Sam snapped and smacked his shoulder, thinking that Danny was just teasing.

"No, Sam, he's right." Tucker said, "That is Dash." He said, noticing the blonde hair and seeing the white sleeve cuffs around his bulging wrists from where the jacket had remained after he mutated.

Sam got a good look, "Oh, shit…" she swore under her breath.

"This is bad…" Jazz said.

"I don't want to mess with- is that Paulina?" Danny pointed at the once-popular girl from his school. He almost didn't recognize her because the lower half of her face was practically melted from the green, acidic ooze that spilled from her mouth.

"I wouldn't wanna mess with her either." Tucker said.

"Well…" Jazz started, "Things have died down." She said, "Should we try to get evacuated?"

"I don't wanna piss off Dash." Danny said.

"More so than he _always_ is?" Sam raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, for Pete's sake." Jazz jumped into the front seat and sank. "Um… Danny?"

"Yeah?" he leaned over to look at his sister.

She chuckled nervously, "Dad still has the keys…" she said.

He slapped his forehead.

"I got this." Tucker sat next to her and pulled down a panel under the dashboard and connected a few wires. Soon enough, the van roared to life, scaring Paulina and startling Dash. Both jumped and watched the van do a hurried u-turn and drive off. The two looked at each other before she hissed and walked away. Dash seemed to roll his eyes and trudged off.

In the van, Jazz cheered and hugged Tucker momentarily, "Thank god for dorks!" she whooped and drove off.

"Hey!" Tucker snapped.

"No, we're dorks." Danny admitted.

"I wasn't saying it as a bad thing. I'm labeled a dork too." Jazz said. She gasped and slammed on the brakes.

Tucker hit his head on the dashboard, Sam and Danny hit their heads on the backs of the front seats. "What was that about?" Sam groaned, holding her head.

"It's destroyed." Jazz whimpered.

"What?" Danny looked out the windshield. He sunk when he found that the evacuation center was not only destroyed, but infested. He sat back and stared at the scene.

"Anyone else got a new plan?" Tucker asked.

"We have to find another evacuation center." Jazz said, turning around and driving off. "So now what?"

"Stop at the police station." Tucker said, "They've gotta have a map in there somewhere with evac locations."

"Sounds good." Jazz said, making a right.

Danny sat in the back silently, eyes closed and arms crossed. He felt Sam put an arm over his shoulders, "So what if your plan fell through?" she asked just loud enough for only him to hear.

"I planned on getting us out of here." He said flatly. "I took us to a death trap."

"Well, we didn't go in, did we?"

"We were too late."

She sighed and watched the ground. "You tried." She looked back up at him. "At least keep that thought. You took initiative and came up with a plan." She said, "You didn't just sit there, you actually did something."

He looked up at her, "Thanks, Sam." He said.

She pat his back, "Anything for my best friend."

Danny managed a smile. "Sorry, for not saying this earlier…" he started, "But happy birthday."

She smiled at him and hugged him.

"And I promise, when we get out of here, I'll make it up to you about the whole Nasty Burger thing." He said, hugging her in return.


	2. Chapter 2: On Foot

The van sputtered and they slowed to a stop. "Jazz?" Danny called, "What's going on?"

"Out of gas." Jazz said.

"We haven't even driven that much!"

"Yeah, but Mom and Dad drove this thing everywhere and usually didn't fill it until about the point when we started." She said. "We're going to have to walk."

"Anything in here we can use to protect ourselves?" Tucker asked.

"I already checked." Danny said, "There's nothing."

"There's always something." Sam said and examined everything. She looked up, "How about these?" she asked. She pointed at the metal railing along the ceiling of the van above hers and Danny's seats.

"There's only two." Jazz said.

"We can break them in two. One for each of us." Tucker said.

Danny took firm hold of one and started yanking on them hoping they'd come off. He finally fell back with a seven-foot rail in his hands. "Tucker, grab the other one." He instructed, holding one foot on the rail and pulling on it, eventually bending it. He continued bending it back and forth until it gave way. Tucker saw this and did the same, handing one half to Jazz after Sam had received the half Danny handed her.

Danny unlocked the door to the van and opened the door, stepping out and making sure the coast was clear. He swung at a zombie that had ran at him and knocked it away. "Wait…" he said, keeping the others inside the van. He looked around for any big zombies like Dash or the acid zombies like Paulina. He certainly wanted to avoid the type of zombie his Mom was. He waved for the others to step out, "This way." He said, starting down the street in the direction that they were going in the first place. The others stayed close to him.

"What do we do if they attack us?" Tucker asked.

"Well, this is just like the zombie movies we used to watch. We'd have to kill them." Sam said.

"Yeah, except we have the weird ones like Dash, Mom and Paulina." Danny said.

Sam wanted to know what his Mom looked like as a zombie, so she'd keep an eye out, but she decided to wait until they actually came across one. She saw Danny stop and stare at a building. "What is it?" she asked.

"It's a pawn shop." He said.

"And?" Tucker asked.

"It's probably got swords or guns inside." Danny said. "Grab my hands, someone."

Jazz and Sam grabbed his hands unsure, Tucker paused, "Oh what, the black guy goes out first? I see how it is."

Sam grabbed his shoulder with her free hand, "Oh, shut up." She said and followed Danny as he phased through the front doors of the pawn shop. Inside, it might as well have been a gun store. The walls were lined with rifles, assault rifles, shotguns, and pistols. In the cases, were swords and other beautiful bladed weapons like axes, spears, knives, halberds, and even throwing stars. In the corner, electronics sat, proving that the place wasn't just a gun store along with a small case of jewelry. Danny took a deep breath, "Grab a weapon. And hold onto it, because I'm not aware of another weapons shop around here." He said, phasing his hand through the glass and picking up an ax, it looked as though it were made to be a realistic replica, but didn't trust it to be sturdy. He didn't want to use anything else, so he chose it. "Hey, Sam, what kind of bladed weapon do you want?" he called.

"Um… What's over there?" she asked, picking up ammo for an SMG she had chosen.

"Halberds, spears, knives, axes, and swords."

"Ooh, halberds?" she asked and went to his side. "That one." She pointed at a spear with a spiked ax head on one end.

He phased his hand through and handed it to her, "That's heavy."

"Heavy enough." Sam smiled and examined the length of the handle.

"Tucker, what about you?"

"Uh, grab something for Jazz first, I'm still trying to find a gun." He said.

"Okay, Jazz?" he never turned away from the glass case.

"Knives." She said, loading a tactical shotgun.

"I got a pair of heavy, safari-looking knives, how're those?" Danny said, staring at the wide but short blades.

"Those'll work." She smiled and cocked a Tactical shotgun.

Danny pulled them out of the case and set them aside. "Find something Tucker?" he finally turned around and found him wandering and looking at the assault rifles.

Tucker stopped and reached for an M-16. "Got one." He smiled. He turned and went to the case Danny had been standing in front of. "Those." He pointed at the set of eight throwing stars.

"I'm not surprised." Danny scooped up the bladed stars and put them in the pouch next to them, then handed them to Tucker. "You're gonna lose them though."

"Nah." Tucker pulled out his PDA and about a dozen small lights, placing one in the center of each star. "I'll keep them tracked."

"Hey…" Danny pointed at the lights, "There's four left."

"Uh-huh. I can count." Tucker said.

"No, there's four of us. One for each. So if we get separated, we can find each other again." He said.

"Good point…" Tucker said, shoving one light in his pocket and handing another to Danny. "Sam, Jazz, here." He dropped the remaining two in their hands.

"Good idea, Danny." Jazz praised.

"Shall we go?" Sam asked.

"I haven't picked out a gun yet." Danny started for the wall.

"I got one for you." Sam said, holding up a high-powered sniper rifle.

Danny turned around, "Oh, perfect." He said, taking it in his hands. He strapped it to his back along with his chosen axe. "Now we can go." He said. He had everyone either grab his hand or his shoulder as he phased back through the door and stepped out to the street. They started for the police station. Any zombies that ran at them, they shot. They stopped in their tracks when they saw the front doors of the police station smashed open and barely on their hinges. They hesitated on going in.

"Well…" Tucker started, "Now what?"

Danny stared at the sign and the doors for a while. Then he took a deep breath, "I'll go in… if I need help, I'll yell. If it's clear, I'll come back out." He said. "Tucker, keep an eye on Sam and Jazz." He instructed.

"You got it, Danny." Tucker nodded.

Danny nodded and went inside the police station.

The police station was dark and too quiet for Danny's liking, and the smell was something he'd never forget. If he thought the Nasty Burger's dumpsters smelled bad, he had to think again. He had to be careful to not step on any of the dead bodies that laid in the lobby. He finally came to the counter, in hopes of maybe finding a map taped on top or maybe on the other side. Instead, he found a flashlight. He clicked it on and got a better look of the place. It wasn't too dark before. He was able to see what had taken place there maybe not a few hours before. But now it was lit up, he saw the blood… the pain… the fear... panic… even death.

When he felt he should've been used to dealing with the dead, because of his ghost fighting. He wanted to say that this was completely different. But was it different? The ghosts talk back when the zombies don't have the mental capacity to even say 'brains' like they did in the movies? That was really just about it. At this point, he already missed the Ghost Zone. The city wasn't the human world anymore. It was Zombie Zone. This wasn't home. Not anymore. He shook his head in pity to all those that had fallen because of this apparent Green Flu. The same flu that had claimed his mother, and in a way, his father too. He checked the back walls, where he had thought he'd heard slight rustling. But instead of finding a zombie or a rat of any sort, he found a large poster that was held on by pushpins at two corners. The other two corners had been ripped off and was now freely blowing in the breeze. He caught the free end and pushed it back to the wall. He found it to be a United States map, with several locations on the east coast marked with the CEDA insignia. He pulled the last two corners off and laid it down on a table in the lobby, placing his axe on top and turning to get the others when he heard a hoarse groan. He froze in his tracks and turned around.

Standing in the hall by the counters, stood a tall zombie in an officer's uniform. He'd seen this cop multiple times before, and never learned his name or had any interaction with him. The officer coughed, as though he'd smoked way too much or as though he was choking on something. A long tongue hung about a foot and a half from his mouth. Half of his face was swollen shut and he had large, infected-looking boils on his arms. Danny held up his rifle and aimed at the smoking infected, "There are so many different types, we just gotta start calling you something." He muttered before sending two bullets into the zombie, one into his heart, and the other obliterating his head. The infected released a large cloud of smoke. Danny's stomach turned as he watched the silhouette of the zombie fall with a thud and a splat. He turned around and met with the others, "I found a map." He said, motioning for them to come inside. They followed him inside and looked at the map with him.

"What is that?" Sam pointed at the cloud of smoke that lingered.

"I really don't wanna know." Danny said and turned his attention to the map, "It looks like the next CEDA location is in… Wisconsin." He said. Then he sighed, "Of all places…"

"It's a zombie apocalypse, Danny, I think he'll leave you alone." Tucker said.

"Yeah. But God forbid if the evac center is right next to his place." Sam shrugged.

Danny shook his head, "Whatever. We're getting there." He said, "I don't even care if the evac center _is_ his mansion. I just want you guys safe." He looked at them.

"Is there an address?" Tucker asked.

Danny searched the sides, "Here." He pointed at the Wisconsin location.

Tucker read the address and put it down in his PDA.

"What're you doing?" Jazz asked.

"GPS." He answered simply. "So we know where we're going." _I sure hope you're not walking._ Said the female automated voice from the PDA, causing the owner to jump almost out of his skin.

"I don't remember it doing that." Jazz said.

Danny and Sam looked at Tucker, "Was this when Technus stole it?"

"Probably, I still haven't reprogrammed the voice." Tucker said. _You can never reprogram my voice._

"That's gonna get annoying quick." Danny said.

_You're gonna get annoying quick._ The PDA argued.

"Please tell me you have another PDA." Jazz rolled her eyes.

"I do, but it's low on battery life and I don't have that many apps on it." Tucker said, "We're just going to have to deal with her."

The other three sighed in disappointment.

_No use in complaining about it._

"Now I remember why I hate GPS." Danny groaned. "Which way?"

"Um, we have to head West." Tucker said, looking at the map on the small screen. "Let's just get to Wisconsin and I'll tell you from there." He said, pocketing the device.

"Well, let's go then." Jazz rested her shotgun on her shoulder.

They began walking down the street, picking off an infected here and there and even talked for a while. Finally, the voice called from Tucker's pocket, _You have walked way too far to be in any sort of parking lot. Now tell me, why the hell are you walking to Wisconsin?_

"We don't have a car," Danny caught himself answering the PDA.

_That's a shame. I noticed one of you is a ghost, why are _you_ walking?_

"Tucker, shut that thing up." Danny groaned.

"I can't, Danny, I'm sorry." Tucker said. The four rounded a corner and started for the edge of town.

_In about three-hundred years, left turn._

Danny yelled in frustration. Sam and Jazz couldn't help but to laugh at the situation.

"I think she likes you, Danny." Tucker smirked, noticing that the PDA only picked on him.

"That's a first." Danny said, "None of your electronics liked me before."

"Not just _my_ electronics." Tucker teased, "Your whole Dad's garage."

"That was when we first met Technus." Sam said.

"Guys?" Jazz stopped walking, "What is that?" she pointed at a huge, bloated infected in the distance.

Sam, Danny and Tucker looked up. "Ugly, that's what that is." Sam said.

Danny peered through the scope of his sniper, "You got that right." He fired and barely clipped his side.

"Whoa!" Tucker, Sam and Jazz gasped, seeing the bloated infected explode in a nasty mess of bile and blood. They watched several zombies run at the spot where the fat zombie stood and started attacking the mess. "Dude, did you shoot his stomach?" Tucker asked.

"No, I barely clipped him." Danny backed away and watched the fight.

"Whatever that thing was, we better avoid it." Sam said, "That's just disgusting." They started walking around the mess. There was a screech before they heard Sam screaming behind them, "Get it off! AH! Get it off me!"

Danny, being the first to respond, whipped around and shot the infected off of Sam. He helped her up, "Are you okay?" he asked.

"Ow…" she leaned against the wall and showed him the slashes on her stomach.

"We need to get first aid." Danny said to Jazz and Tucker, "Hurry."

They both took off while Sam slid down the wall to sit on the ground. She groaned and held her stomach tightly.

"You're gonna be okay." Danny said, staying close to her. He glanced at the zombie that had attacked her and made sure that he killed him.

"Danny?" she panted.

"Yeah?" he glanced down at her.

"Does that thing have claws?" she asked, apparently staring at the same zombie.

He let her go for a quick moment to see the sharp claws that came from each finger, "Yeah, he does." He sat back next to her.

"He's wearing a jacket from school." She muttered.

"He's a Casper High football player, yeah." He nodded.

She rested her head on her shoulder, "This really hurts." She said.

"I can imagine." He wrapped an arm around her and pulled her in closer, "You're going to be okay, I promise." He hugged her.

Her head rested on his chest, "Thank you, Danny."

He waited patiently with her, glaring at the clawed infected that attacked her and praying that she'd be okay. He listened carefully to her breathing and paid close attention to her heartbeat that he barely felt from her back.

"Sorry that took a while, we had r-" Tucker stopped in his tracks to see Sam in her state in Danny's arms.

Jazz took the first aid kit from Tucker and knelt in front of them, "Danny, if you don't mind?"

Danny carefully leaned Sam against the wall and stood up next to Tucker. They both faced away from them to give the girls privacy.

"Is she okay?" Tucker asked.

"I hope so." Danny stared at the ground.

"Hey, man, are _you_ okay?" he looked at him in worry.

"Who knows what the heck's out there when we have things that Dash turned into, what my Mom turned into, that Paulina turned into, just all the weird zombies. What else is out there?" he said, "Sam got attacked by one of them and it hurt her really bad. I don't want to lose you guys too to the same crazy bullshit that… killed Dad…" he trailed off.

"Hey, hey, hey," Tucker put a hand on his shoulder, "We're gonna make it out of here. I'm sure of it." He smiled, "Everything's gonna be okay."

"Thanks." Danny managed a small smile.

"We're gonna have to stop and rest for a little bit for Sam." Jazz's voice said behind them.

"Alright." Danny nodded. He turned around and looked around for a place they can stop and rest at. The building they stood by showed promise. The doors were boarded up and the building had actually been abandoned for years. Danny shoved the door open with his shoulder and fell through surprised that the door gave way so easily.

_Apparently the door wasn't locked to begin with._

"Tucker…" Danny complained. He pushed himself up off the ground and picked up Sam.

"Now's not the time," Tucker scolded the PDA. He followed the Fenton siblings upstairs to the top of the building. "Now _this_ isn't a bad idea." Tucker put his hands on his hips and smiled.

Danny carefully rested Sam on the ground by the walled-in roof access door. "I agree. We can hang out here until Sam's recovered enough to keep going." He pulled the sniper rifle from his back and went to the wall going around the roof, "I can see what's going on here."

"I'll look for some supplies in the building then." Tucker said.

"I'll go with you." Jazz followed him out.

Danny sighed and looked through his scope, shooting every zombie in the head and tried to see if he recognized anyone.


	3. Chapter 3: Resting

"Danny?"

He looked around to see who called his name. Finding nothing, he looked back down and found an odd looking infected that stared at him. His eyes were blank and he had no nose. It disturbed him to see that the infected was fully naked, yet had no privates. He just stared at him silently and perfectly still. He couldn't keep his eyes off him.

"Danny?"

He was sure that the infected was talking to him, but his mouth didn't move. He knew it wasn't a ghost, because he would've sensed it.

"Danny." He felt someone tap his shoulder. He jumped, gasped and almost dropped his weapon off the roof. He looked up and saw Sam looking down at him, "Are you okay?" she asked.

"Yeah." He looked back for the staring infected and found it was gone. He shook his head, "Yeah, I'm fine." He stood up, "How're you feeling?"

She shrugged and looked at the bandages around her middle, "My stomach hurts, but I'm alright. I'll live." She smiled as though she weren't injured.

He managed a smile back. "Good." He said, "We need you here."

"Please," she scoffed, "What do you need me for?"

"It's easier to survive with four people and not just three. Besides, you have more spine than Tucker and Jazz." He chuckled.

"Do I now?" she asked unsure.

"Yes." He said, "I mean, don't tell them I said that. But you do."

"You like the whole 'tough girl' thing, don't you?" she smirked.

"It's saved my ass before, so yes. I do." He smiled.

She laughed, "So the tough, super-hero Ghost Boy has a thing for tough girls?"

"Yeah, I do." He laughed, "Why is that so funny?"

"It just is." She smiled. She wrapped her arms around the back of his neck and rested her head on his shoulder.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, just tired." She said.

Tucker and Jazz met with them, "Um, turns out there are supplies here and the place's completely empty." Tucker said. "There's one apartment on each floor, one room each."

"We'll take the one on the top floor." Danny said.

"Is she okay?" Jazz asked.

"She's just tired." Danny said, starting to support Sam's weight.

"Okay." His sister nodded.

"Are there any beds downstairs?" Danny asked.

"Yeah, there are." Tucker nodded.

"We're going to salvage what we can from downstairs." Jazz said.

"Okay." Danny nodded, feeling bad that they're doing everything and he's just standing there. Granted, he was keeping an eye on Sam, but still.

After the two left, Danny sighed and turned his head toward Sam. "Wanna get some sleep?" he asked.

She didn't respond.

"Sam?"

He sighed and lifted her off the ground and carried her over his shoulder. He started downstairs and opened the door. In the apartment directly below the roof, he found a queen-sized bed and leaned forward to lay Sam down. Finding no other way of doing so without dropping her or falling over, he had each knee on each side and each arm on each side of her. He carefully moved her up so she was resting fully on the bed with her head on one of the pillows. He looked at her and realized how bad the position would look if she were to wake up. Cursing his luck, he found himself staring into Sam's violet eyes, "This is _not_ what it looks like." He said.

She growled and slapped him hard enough to throw him off the side of the bed. He tried grabbing the sheets or the blanket to catch himself, however, whatever he grabbed went down with him. He phased through the floor before he hit it and landed on his feet. Coincidentally in the same room that Jazz and Tucker were scavenging. He took a deep breath and looked at them, "I fell…" he said nervously.

"You fell? Or tried to escape?" Tucker asked.

"Escape?" Danny gave him a strange look.

"Danny!" Jazz snapped, "Is that Sam's bra?"

He turned bright red and looked at what he had in his hand. As though on cue, pounding footsteps were heard coming down the stairs as Sam yelled curses at Danny. She opened the door and lunged at Danny, who went intangible and avoided her tackle.

"Danny! Give it back!" she snapped and ran at him.

"Run, Danny, run!" Tucker called.

Danny ran out the room and up the stairs, running to the room that he was slapped out of. Sam tackled him and pinned him down on the bed face down.

"Give it back!" she yelled.

"Okay! Okay!" Danny's voice was muffled through the blanket, "I didn't mean to grab it, just don't kill me!"

She paused for a moment, "I'm not gonna kill you. That'd be stupid." She said.

"Well, get off me, 'cause you're working on it."

Sam climbed off of him and let him get up and take a deep breath. She held out her hand. He high-fived her. She glared at him and held out her hand again. He chuckled and handed her back the bra. "Turn around so I can put this back on." She said.

He turned around, "Wow, you're not making me leave the room."

"Don't tempt me. I'll slap you again." She said, taking off her shirt.

"Oh, we all know how well _that_ went over," he crossed his arms.

"Shut up." She hooked on the bra and adjusted it in place.

He laughed. "So… lace, huh?"

She glared at him, "Shut up!" she slapped the back of his head.

He laughed harder.

"Go upstairs and shoot stuff." She grumbled and pulled her shirt back on. "Okay, I'm done." She said.

He turned around and looked at her, still smiling. She still glared at him, "Your face is still red." She said, pointed out the fact that it was just red from when she slapped him.

He rubbed his face where it stung. "Probably. You hit me pretty hard."

She nodded and grunted in pain, holding one hand to her stomach.

"Here," Danny carefully guided her down, "Just get some sleep." He pulled the blanket over her. "If you need me, I'll be on the roof." He said.

She nodded and closed her eyes.

He sighed and watched her sleep for a moment. He finally sighed, stood up, and left the room, closing the door behind him and going back to the roof. He picked up his rifle and knelt to start shooting from his lookout again. He was shortly met with Jazz. She sat next to him and watched the heads of zombies vanish in a bloody spray. "Did you give Sam back her bra?"

He stopped shooting and looked at her, "I'm not _that_ type. Besides," he went back to shooting, "What am I going to use Sam's bra for?" he asked.

"Just curious." She shrugged. "You know, it's a good thing the ghosts aren't bothering us." She looked at the sky.

"I'd rather fight the ghosts than these things." Danny said coldly. "Ghosts at least talk to you. They are a spirit, have a personality, they prove that they're someone. These… zombies, are the walking dead."

"So are the ghosts." Jazz pointed out.

He sighed, "Yeah, but if a ghost bites, scratches, or cuts someone… they don't turn into a ghost. And being a ghost isn't a flu, or a plague. Being a zombie is. Mom and Dad have been injured plenty of times by ghosts, and they stayed human for as long as they were working against ghosts. This Green Flu comes out, Mom caught it and killed Dad." He said. "If you, Sam or Tucker turn into something because of this, I can never get you guys back." He'd stopped shooting, "If you were turned to ghosts, I can at least see you. You can still be here or the in the Ghost Zone." He said. "I'm scared to death about Sam right now." He pulled his rifle back over his lap and lowered his head, resting it on the short brick wall around the roof. "I don't want her to turn into one of them."

Jazz was quiet. She hadn't thought of that. "Did she complain about not feeling good? Feeling sick maybe?"

He shook his head and sniffled. "No, she hasn't."

"Well, she's going to be okay then." Jazz smiled and gently made Danny look up at her, "Sam's going to be just fine." She smiled. She smiled wider when she saw the smile spread on her brother's face.

"Thanks." He wiped his eye. "She's sleeping now, so I won't be able to ask her for sure."

Jazz watched him for a moment, "You should get some sleep too." She said. "Come on, let's go." She got him to stand up.

Danny gave her a small smile and walked inside. He went into the room where Sam rested and watched her for a little while. He sighed and laid on the bed next to her. He looked at her again and saw she was lying on her side and facing away from him. He turned to his side and carefully wrapped an arm around her, carefully inching closer to her. There, he drifted to sleep.

Jazz had come down from the roof with Danny's rifle strapped on her shoulder. She leaned over to peek through the crack on the door to check on Sam. However, she wasn't expecting to see her brother too. She gently pushed the door open to see better. She smiled at the sight of the two. She sighed and went downstairs to meet with Tucker. "You know, for a pair that isn't actually dating, they sure act like a couple."

Tucker sat trying to put together some sort of wired mess, "Yeah, they do that a lot." He untangled a few wires.

"What are you doing?" she put the rifle and the shotgun down and sat next to him.

"Trying to put together some sort of charger so I can charge _this_ PDA," He held up the one that didn't speak, "And give it to Danny when I get the apps on it that the other one has."

"Hopefully you don't get the voice on it too." Jazz said.

He scoffed, "Yeah, that'd drive him nuts." He paused for a moment, "Wait, you're just noticing that they act like they're dating when they're not?" he looked at her confused.

"No. I just didn't bring it up until now." She said.

"Why? What are they doing?" he went back to what he was doing.

"Sleeping together. You ever heard of 'spooning?"

He looked up at her, "Wow, really?"

She nodded.

"Dang," his blood started running cold and he broke in a cold sweat. He thought Danny and Sam lucky to have the close bond they had and often caught himself feeling jealous and envying the fact. He tried get a girlfriend. Danny did too, but he was barking up the wrong tree and found himself with another girl. Now the girl that they both had a crush on was a zombie, and probably the most unattractive zombie they'd seen so far. Danny and Sam weren't even dating, but the apocalypse had probably sealed the deal between them.

"You okay?" Jazz's voice broke his thoughts.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine." He kept untangling the wires, "Just thinking." He said. Then he mentally flinched, knowing that she was probably going to ask.

"About what?" she asked.

_Damn it._ He sighed, "Um… the wires I needed for this charger. I'm missing one." He lied. He didn't want to tell her about his 'girl' problems. Then he stopped and forgot about everything. He wondered how his parents were doing. He sighed, and got some wires free.

"I'm sure." She looked at him skeptically. "Something else's bothering you…" she said.

"I'm very particular when it comes to electronics." He said.

"Not the charger." She said, "Something else…" she said, "What's wrong?" she asked.

He stopped and rested his hands and the wire-y mess on his lap. "I just hope my parents are okay…" he said.

She grew silent. She'd expected a different subject entirely. She sighed and looked down.

He shook his head, "Sorry. Here I am complaining about not knowing what happened to my parents when yours…" he stopped himself.

"It's okay." She gently put a hand on his knee, "Not knowing is worse than knowing." She said. "It's torture to not know."

He looked at her for a moment, feeling his heart racing when she put her hand on his knee.

"It scares me to death not knowing where Danny is when he's fighting ghosts." She said. "But I feel better knowing where he is… even if he's hurt." She smiled faintly at him.

He knew she was optimistic, but in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, after she lost her Dad and her Mom wasn't her Mom anymore, after not getting evacuated, having to walk to an evacuation center in Wisconsin, and having her brother's best friend injured, she still managed to smile. He smiled faintly, "Thanks, Jazz." He said.

She moved her hand away and left his knee cold.

"How do you do that?" he asked.

"Do what?" she laid back in the recliner she'd sat in.

"Look at the bright side when everything else has gone to shit." He said.

She smiled and closed her eyes, "Smiling and laughing are the healthiest things you can do." She said, "The more you laugh, the longer you live." She trailed off.

He half-smiled, "Good night, Jasmine." He said.

"Good night…" she mumbled, "Tucker."

He watched her for a moment. He couldn't look away. It finally occurred to him. He gasped and looked back down at his project. He was falling for Jazz. He caught himself falling for his best friend's older sister that was two years older than them. He put together some wires sloppily and attached them to a plug-in that fit his PDA, the one without the voice. He spent the rest of the night copying apps from one PDA to the other until he fell asleep in the corner with everything.

The next morning, Sam opened her eyes and found herself very warm. It was normal, but she felt warmer than she did when she went to bed the night before. She shifted her leg back and kicked something. She turned around and found it was Danny's shoe, attached to his leg, attached to him, with his arm wrapped around her waist. She looked at him for a while groggily. She nodded and laid her head back down, thinking nothing of it.

"Morning…" his sleepy voice mumbled in her ear.

She nodded, "Morning… I'm not a morning person…" she said. She opened her eyes again, but took a good look at the wall in front of her, the entire situation. She's lying in an unfamiliar bed, in an unfamiliar room, in an unfamiliar building, with her best friend wrapped around her waist, who'd- from what she can tell- spent the night there. She sat up and grunted at the pain in her stomach. She looked to the floor next to her and found an SMG lying on the floor by the bed, along with a sniper rifle. "Danny?" she asked, eyeing the guns skeptically. Then it hit her, "Oh!" she laid back down, trying not to hit Danny on her way down, "Stupid zombies…" she rubbed her eyes.

"Stupid zombies." Danny muttered and hugged her.

"Get off me!" she pushed him away and knocked him off the bed, hearing a thud on the other side.

"Ow!" Danny yelped and sat up, "Is this gonna be a normal thing for you?" he asked and rubbed his head, "Every time you wake up, you're gonna throw me off the bed?"

She looked at him, "Sorry."

"It's okay." He used the bed to help him stand up, "How are you feeling?" he sat next to her.

She watched him for a while, "Fine." She said.

"Sick at all?" he asked.

She shook her head, "Not at all."


	4. Chapter 4: Calling Names

So if anything happens, I can find you guys?" Danny asked, holding the PDA that Tucker had spent the night fixing.

"Yep." He said, "It's an exact replica of this one." He held up the PDA that had the voice, "Except for the voice."

_Oh, a partner._ The PDA cooed. _Ugh, not nearly as shiny._ She complained.

"It's got a matte finish." Jazz said without looking up.

Danny stared at the talking PDA in disgust. He shook his head and got rid of the expression, "Thanks, Tucker." He said and slid the device in his pocket.

"So what are we doing today, Danny?" Jazz asked.

He looked over at Sam, "Do you feel okay enough to keep going?" he asked.

She nodded, "I'm okay to go." She said.

"Okay…" Danny said, "Then we'll keep going." He said. "After we all eat."

"Okay." Jazz said and handed everyone a can, "This was all we could find." She said.

"Thanks, Jazz." Tucker said and opened the can.

The room remained silent while everyone ate the contents of their cans. The zombies they'd encountered had him thinking. "We need to call the weird zombies something." He said, breaking the silence.

"You mean name them?" Jazz looked at him like he was insane.

"Generalize them. like if they were a different species of zombie, or race… right?" Tucker clarified and looked at Danny.

"Yeah." He nodded, "Like that fat one we saw. Surely there's more." He said.

"A Boomer." Sam said.

"Yeah." Jazz nodded, "Shoot him once and he just… goes boom."

"Okay, so the fat ones are Boomers." Danny smiled.

Tucker pulled out his PDA and took notes. "I'll get pictures of each as we go." He announced, "Danny, you should too." He thought for a moment, "What about the big one that Dash turned into?"

"We don't know what they do." Sam said.

"Dash was built like a tank." Danny said.

"Tank!" Tucker exclaimed and wrote it down.

"And whatever Paulina was?" Sam asked.

Everyone grew silent.

"I don't know what to call that. We'll see what she does." Jazz said.

Danny thought for a moment, "There was one in the police station that was weird. When I shot him, he went up in smoke. He coughed like he smoked too much too."

"Smoker." Tucker said. Then he paused, "Why do I get the feeling that we're not the only ones who's calling them this?" he asked. He looked around at everyone who shrugged, he shrugged. "What's next?"

"What about that thing that attacked Sam?" Danny asked.

"He looked like his name would be Hunter." Sam said.

"I think that was Kwan." Danny said.

"Hey, I couldn't see!" she protested.

"He's a Hunter." Tucker announced.

Jazz was silent. "What about Mom?" she asked.

Danny looked at her. He grew silent. "Let's not name her just yet."

Tucker saved the list, "Alright, so we have Boomer, Tank, Smoker, and Hunter." He said. "Then there's more that we probably haven't seen yet." He said.

"Okay." Danny sighed, putting down his can. "Everyone ready to go?" he asked.

Everyone nodded hesitantly.

He stood up and strapped his gun over his shoulder and held his axe in his hands. "Let's go."

As they walked down the road, Danny in front, Jazz and Tucker in the back and Sam in the middle, they shot down every infected they saw, luckily with not much resistance. As he shot off the head of an approaching infected. He squinted, "Is that another survivor?" he asked.

"Hey, that is." Jazz waved her arms, "Hey! Over here! We can help you!" she yelled.

The survivor looked over, "Oh, thank god. I thought I was the only one left in town!" he called back and started toward them. Halfway through his path, a larger infected howled and charged into him, sending him into a wall and straight to his death.

The four stood with their eyes widened in shock and their stomachs so twisted that they would've thrown up. Each swallowing down their returning meal, they agreed to call the infected a Charger.

"So much for helping him." Sam commented.

Tucker gagged as they continued, but didn't vomit. He registered the Charger in his PDA.

_Angry bastard, isn't it?_ The PDA asked.

"No kidding." Tucker muttered and put the PDA back in his pocket.

Danny furrowed his brows, "I almost forgot one."

"Danny, I don't think now's the time to be forgetting anything." Jazz said.

"I almost forgot that Danny practically ghost-swiped my bra." Sam said without shame.

Danny turned red and looked down, "Sam…" he groaned. "Last night I saw a zombie that didn't actually do anything. But he just stared at me. It was creepy. He didn't look like any of the others, in fact he just looked like a grey, buff mannequin." He said.

"That's interesting." Tucker said, "What would we call that one?" he asked.

"I don't know. He didn't attack me. He just stared." He said. "We'll see if we find another one, and if he attacks, he'll name him based off what he did."

"Okay." Tucker shrugged, "So he just looked like a mannequin? Do you think you could identify him by what he was wearing?"

"No." Danny shook his head, "This thing was naked."

The others rose an eyebrow in confusion, "Naked?"

"And he had no junk." Danny said simply. Because he was at the front of the group, he didn't know that the others were giving him a look that would've made him feel uncomfortable. There was a moment of silence.

_Poor, lonely bastard._ The PDA spoke from Tucker's pocket.

Tucker slapped himself, "Wait, you actually _looked_ for it?"

"No, it was just obvious." Danny said.

"I'm sure there's a few jokes about that Charger." Jazz said, "With the oversized right arm."

"Yeah, but that's probably implied." Sam added, "With a-"

"Conversation over." Danny said firmly. "Let's just keep going."

There was a sad, long, moaning wail that cut through the air. They listened to the depressing sobs for a moment, Danny and Jazz exchanged glances in fear for what had happened the morning before. The morning before that seemed to be a week ago.

"What is that?" Sam asked, uneasy.

"It sounds like…" Tucker started, trying to identify who it was.

"How Mom sounded before she attacked Dad." Jazz said, looking nervously at Danny.

Danny had pinpointed the exact direction where the cries where coming from. He crept toward the noise.

"Danny?" Jazz stopped him, "For something as violent as what Mom was, you'd want this." She handed him her Tactical Shotgun. With a nod, he strapped his rifle to his back and armed himself with the gun. He stepped over a dead body and away from a pile of shattered glass, his eyes never leaving the slumped, powdered-white figure just several feet from him. He held his hand behind him, telling the others to stay back. He was finally so close to the bony woman that he stood up straight and took aim, praying not to disturb her with the click of the gun. Instead of the clicking noise, his foot accidentally nudged a paper cup from a fast food restaurant and tapped the woman's hand.

A growl ripped from her lips and she jumped up to swipe at him. Such movement was so quick, he didn't dodge in time and felt her claws rip his side open. He grunted and stumbled forward, turning around in time for him to go intangible and let her phase straight through him. When she tripped from the trick that she didn't see coming, he took the advantage of her distraction and shot her in the back of the head. With a blood-curdling shriek, she dropped to her knees and fell to the ground.

Danny panted and stared at her in fear. His blood had ran cold and his heart pounded in his ears so loudly that he didn't hear the others panicking behind him, he even forgot out the three-inch deep cuts on his side that bleed freely. His head began spinning and he stepped backward.

"Danny!" Sam barked and grabbed his shoulder, "Are you okay? You're bleeding!"

Without looking up at her, he nodded speechlessly.

"Come on." She pulled him away and walked him back. "Let's take care of his side, real quick." She said.

"Now he uses his powers." Tucker said and knelt to pull out some first aid supplies.

"Ghosts can't turn, can they?" Danny panted, finally being able to manage a few words.

"They shouldn't." Jazz said. "Some of the cells are already dead. No offense."

Danny shook his head and leaned it against Sam, refusing to sit down at Tucker's suggestion.

"Well, at least lift up your arms and your shirt." He said.

He pulled the bottom of his shirt over his shoulders and tried taking the bandages from Tucker, who kept them away from him. Tucker then pat the skin that was close to the cuts, "Do you feel that?"

"No."

"Then _I'll_ take care of it. Just hold your arms up."

"What do we call that?" Sam asked, taking Danny's hands and putting them over her shoulders.

Danny thought for a while. The cries sounded human, anyone else who'd never seen her before would've approached her with concern, only to walk right into her trap. "She's a Witch." He said.

"A Witch?" Tucker asked and continued wrapping the wound.

"She lures in people by crying." He said, "Like a trap, then she attacks. She captivates her victims and when they're too close or they startle her, she goes in for the kill."

They were silent for a while, "So when Mom… killed Dad..."

"She had a trap set up for any of us." He said. "If I had gone in there and checked on her, it would've been me instead of Dad."

"But-"

"I wouldn't fight back against my own Mom." Danny cut off Tucker, knowing what he was going to say.

Tucker paused and nodded, "Right…" he tied off the bandages and put the supplies back in the bag.

Danny put his shirt back down and traded for his rifle back. "Let's go." He said without a second thought.

The others looked at each other confused and watched him stumble off, "Just like that?" Jazz asked, "You're gonna just brush that off like that didn't even happen? You're hurt!"

"Let's get as far as we can until this adrenaline wears off." He said firmly, "We need to keep going."

Without another word, Sam and Tucker followed Danny, Jazz stood for a moment, curious as to how and when her brother grew so serious and so tense. Then she realized that he'd been doing more ghost hunting than her parents were and ran to catch up with them.

"Danny?" Sam asked.

"Yeah?"

"Why'd you go up to her?" she asked.

"Yeah, since she's so dangerous." Tucker agreed.

Danny had thought about it. He really didn't know why. "I guess to make sure she didn't go after you guys." He said.

They were able to make it a few blocks until Danny stumbled and grunted.

"You okay?" Sam helped him back up.

He nodded, "Yeah."

"We should stop. You're hurt, and I need to change my bandages." She said and pulled his arm over her shoulder.

Tucker and Jazz watched from behind. "Let's find shelter." Tucker leaned over.

"Yeah." She nodded and looked around with him. Finding only a McDonald's that was barricaded just well enough. "Over there, come on!" she trotted inside and checked for any zombies. With only a couple shots, the building was considered safe.

Sam and Tucker quickly walked Danny in and made him lay down on a bench by one of the tables. There, he fell asleep almost instantly.

"Come here, Sam, let me change your bandages." Jazz said.

"I'll go look for some food." Tucker pointed behind him and walked off.

Sam sat down on the table and pulled off her shirt.

"Not worried about the guys looking?" Jazz smirked and pulled out her first aid kit.

"We're in an apocalypse, they're gonna see at some point. Besides, I've got my stomach showing half the time anyways." She said.

Jazz nodded and took the bandages off, showing a series of cuts and slashes that the Hunter had so generously left her. "These look bad." Jazz commented, cleaning the cuts carefully.

"Well, duh… I got these yesterday. I'm sure Danny's are gonna look just as nasty tomorrow as they do now." Sam shrugged, wincing occasionally.

Jazz nodded and glanced at the blood spots on Danny's shirt where it had been torn. She sighed and brought her attention back to Sam.

She sighed and leaned back, "How do you think life will be once we get out of here?" she asked, "Nothing's gonna be the same."

The redhead shrugged, "I don't know." She tied off Sam's bandages, "There's only one way to find out, and that's by getting there." She said. "Put your shirt back on, I think Tucker's coming."

Sam picked up her shirt and explored it for a bit before finding where her head goes.

"Whoa." Tucker froze and dropped a tray he'd been holding. He turned and went back to the kitchen of the fast food restaurant.

Sam smirked, "Blackmail…" she sang and pulled her shirt back on. "It's on, Tuck, you can come in now."

Tucker walked back in and picked up the tray he was holding. On the tray was a few sandwiches and a pile of French fries. "Made something." He set down the tray on the table.

"Tucker, you cook?" Sam laughed, "I didn't know that."

"I was gonna work at Nasty Burger for a little bit. Just as a starter job, so they trained me a little bit and they decided I was too good for the job, so they didn't let me work there." He explained, "But, at least I remember how to make burgers and fries."

Jazz thought for a moment, "Well, I guess working at Nasty Burger isn't all bad."

Sam reached over and collected a handful of fries and tucked them into a napkin, pulling aside two cheeseburgers and then taking a bite from a third burger.

"Geez, Sam, storing food for the winter?" Tucker teased.

"No- saving some for Danny when he wakes up." She said and took another bite from the burger. She looked at the sandwich, "Aw, a veggie burger." She smiled, "Thanks, Tucker." She said.

"I remembered. Although it pained me to make it without meat, it would've pained me more to see you throw up in disgust." He said.

"Tucker, Tucker, Tucker." Jazz pat his arm and stared out the window, "Get your camera." She said.

Tucker pulled out his PDA camera without question and looked out the window, seeing that Dash had traveled to their area. When Dash turned to just the right angle, Tucker took the picture and attached it to the Tank's description. He looked up when he heard the Tank roar furiously, freezing the conscious three and running their blood cold. They watched him rage and brutally beat other infected into a pulp and even throw one like a football.

"I guess old habits die hard." Sam said softly, only loud enough for Jazz and Tucker to hear.

Dash approached the infected he had thrown that somehow survived the flight and growled lowly. The infected forced himself to look back up at him before having his head smashed into the concrete.

"Now I'm gonna be sick." Sam got up and quickly found the restroom.

"Damn…" Tucker breathed, "I guess we try to stay away from that one."

"No kidding." Jazz agreed.


	5. Chapter 5: Imposter

That night, Sam had taken the bench next to Danny while Tucker and Jazz took another table entirely. Danny laid on his back and stared at the ceiling sleepily. He'd woken up hours before only to find everyone else fast asleep. His bandages slightly too tight, though he didn't notice before. However, the pressure made the cuts feel somewhat better. He wasn't going to complain, he'd been in worse conditions before. He made himself sit up, armed himself with his rifle and axe, and phased through the barricades on the door. He had a chill down his spine, feeling like he was being watched again. He looked around and found nothing. He shook his head, "I must be paranoid." He said to himself and looked for a convenience store he remembered passing on the way to the McDonald's. For the whole walk, he remained invisible, so the infected would leave him alone. He finally found himself in the Seven-Eleven and looked around for some more first aid, disappointed that they were already running out. He found a plastic grocery bag and began filling when he felt a handgun to the back of his head, "Here for medical supplies?" the voice said.

Danny dropped the bag and hesitantly put his hands up. He dared not turn around.

"Funny, I didn't see you come in." the voice said again, "You're not a normal human." He said, "You remind me of a chameleon, but I sense something else about you." The figure bumped the gun against Danny's head, "Turn around."

Danny turned around hesitantly to find himself staring into the chamber of the handgun. He looked up into the blank, whited-out eyes of the figure, finding that it was the mannequin figure that had been staring at him the night before. His blood ran cold and his breath was caught in this throat.

"Blue." The figure said, "I didn't get a good look at them earlier." He said, his finger was on the trigger and his hand held the handgun firmly to Danny's forehead, "I'm gonna go meet your friends."

Before the trigger was pulled, Danny went intangible and let the bullet pass through his head without any damage, he then grabbed his axe and swung at the arm holding the gun, slicing it clean off. The figure growled and rose a leg to kick Danny, who was now fully exposed and landed his foot on the cuts from the Witch. Danny barked in pain and felt another foot kick him into a pile of boxes and shelves.

The figure stood for a moment and waited to see Danny emerge from the pile. After seeing that he didn't, he smirked to himself and straightened up. Like scales, the figure's skin ruffled and changed shape and color and finally revealed himself as a one-armed Danny Fenton. He stumbled out of the building and made his way toward the McDonald's.

Sam laid on the bench and pulled her eyebrows together. She opened her violet eyes and shielded them from the blinding ray of light that shone through the window. She missed her bedroom curtains already. She got up and found the next bench over empty. "Danny?" she called quietly, assuming Jazz and Tucker were still asleep. She looked around and found that the lobby was dead silent. Jazz and Tucker slept soundly on their own bench. She watched them for a while, "That can't be comfortable." She muttered to herself. She made her way to the kitchen. Empty. The checked both restrooms. Empty. She even found the roof access and assumed Danny might've been sniping. Nothing. However, she heard moans and snarls outside. She approached the edge of the roof and found not a horde- but a swarm of infected surrounding the building. She gasped in horror, not sure as to how long the building will stay standing. Above all, Danny was among the horde, staring dead-eyed toward the building, and looking straight at her.

She froze in fear. In the back on her mind, she heard banging and his voice shouting. She turned around and looked for the noise. She shortly found herself back on the bench she awoke on and panted. Jazz and Tucker had jumped up and helped Danny in. Sam gasped to see Danny stumble in, one side soaked in blood, "D-Danny?" she asked in fear, realizing that only part of it was a dream.

"Danny, what were you doing out there by yourself?" Jazz asked horrified and took off his shirt, Danny growled in pain.

"Medical supplies." He panted.

"Where's your arm?" Sam asked fearfully.

"It was a Hunter, I lost my weapons and couldn't grab the supplies."

"Why didn't you use your powers?" Tucker asked, helping Jazz clean the wound.

"I couldn't…" he groaned, "They weren't working."

"Where's the Hunter?" Sam asked.

"I killed him." He said, starting to wobble side to side. "I managed to drop a couple shelves on him."

Jazz quickly wrapped Danny's shoulder, hands shaking as she treated who she thought was her brother with a missing limb. "Lie down." She carefully guided him down to his back. The three quietly watched him fall asleep. "No offense guys, but my brother's an idiot sometimes."

Sam watched him suspiciously, as did Jazz. Neither of them thought something was right. However, since the apocalypse, nothing was right anymore.

"How did he- a Ghost Kid, manage to lose his entire left arm?" Tucker asked.

"I was thinking the same thing." Jazz said. "But if his powers weren't working…"

"He's fast though." Sam said, "Even if his powers weren't working." Even if his powers weren't working, he might not have been able to escape a Hunter. She didn't want to believe it. She also didn't want to believe that one of her two best friends was missing an arm and would have to live the rest of his life without it.

"Let's… stay here for a bit. At least until he feels well enough to keep going." Jazz broke the silence.

"I agree." Tucker nodded.

"He shouldn't have even been up." Sam shook her head, "What was he thinking?"

"He should've had one of us come along." Tucker sighed.

Sam looked out the window and realized that the sun hadn't even risen just yet. "I'll watch him." She said, "You two go back to sleep." She said.

The two nodded, "Good night, Sam."

Sam sat and watched them go back to their claimed tables and lie back down on the benches. She then looked back over at Danny, unable to help but to stare at his shoulder. She sighed and made herself look away, still thinking that was just a messed-up prank that Danny somehow managed to pull off in order to scare them. She felt a lump in the back of her throat and let out a small sob. She took a deep, shaking breath and let it out slowly.

"Don't cry." Danny's voice said next to her. She looked over at him, all she saw were his lower legs hanging off the edge of the bench. "The Sam I know won't cry."

She managed a smirk, "The Danny I know, though, wouldn't have let something take off his entire arm." She replied.

He sighed. "Right…

"Just… how?" she asked, "How did it happen?"

"The Hunter caught me off guard." He said. "He bit my arm as he pounced on me and just took it off. I didn't expect for it to come off completely."

She furrowed her brows, finding it hard to believe, "Why didn't we hear anything?" she asked.

"I was at the 7-11 close to where that Witch was." He said.

"That's at least half a block from here." she looked away for a moment. "Why didn't you take one of us with you?" she asked.

He was silent for a while.

She sighed, "Please don't worry us like that again." She said, "All things considered, you're _lucky_ to lose just your arm. Things could've been way worse."

He remained silent for a moment, "I'm sorry I worried you guys."

"As long as you're okay." She said. "Jazz decided to stay for a bit while you're recovering. Just until you feel okay enough to keep going."

"Okay." Danny nodded, "A little more sleep and I should be okay." He yawned. "Good night, Sam." He mumbled.

"Good night." She said, not believing he'd be okay to go the next morning. But before she knew it, he was on his feet and walking with the others that next morning, holding her halberd to protect himself. "So, tell me again- why are we going back down here?" She asked.

"The 7-11's packed with medical supplies. It looked like everyone ignored the place." He said.

Sam and Tucker looked at each other unsure. Jazz stood close to Danny's left side. she looked up and froze, "Guys? She asked, horrified.

"What?" Tucker asked, checking his PDA for something.

"Who's _that_?" she pointed.

Danny looked up and froze to see the real Danny approaching them, armed, and furious.

Sam looked at the Danny with them, then the Danny approaching them. "What the-?"

The one-armed Danny grunted in pain and dropped to his knees, dropping the halberd and grabbing what was left of his shoulder, he looked at his hand and noticed small traces of blood that was printed on his palm. He felt an arm go over his shoulders, "Are you okay?" Sam's voice asked, causing an evil smirk spread over his face, although hidden.

"No! Get away from him!" Danny's voice barked.

The fake Danny grabbed hold of the halberd beside him and hit Sam with the staff part, missing her with the blade. He then turned and sliced at Tucker, only cutting his shirt. When he turned to swing at Jazz, he was met face to face with the true Danny and had the halberd yanked from his hands. He backed away and avoided a swing from the blunt end of the weapon, instead getting shot in his right shoulder. His right arm was now useless. He growled and looked up at whoever had shot him: Tucker. He ran and threw his weight into Tucker's stomach.

Tucker fell backwards and used the shape-shifting zombie's momentum to throw him, finally seeing his true, naked, blank form. He flinched when he saw the zombie's head tilt to the side, a spray of blood and grey matter, and the body collapse to the ground with a dull thud. He turned around, realizing he'd been holding his breath, "What the hell was that?" he asked, almost yelling.

"The thing that was watching me." Danny said firmly and helped Sam to her feet. "We're calling that a Shifter." He said. Sam hugged him and nearly knocked him off balance. He looked at her confused and hugged her back, allowing Jazz to hug him as well. It took him a moment to realize that they were crying. "Guys, I wasn't gone _that_ long." He said.

_You're an idiot, Ghost Boy._ The PDA said harshly.

Tucker slapped his pocket.

Sam backed away and slapped Danny, "Don't ever leave by yourself like that again!" she sobbed.

"We had no idea that wasn't you." Jazz said, her maternal instincts kicking in.

"Do you really think I'd let some zombie take off my whole arm?" he asked sarcastically and nursed his cheek.

Sam almost slapped him again, but hugged him instead, "Just… _please_ take one of us with you next time." She said.

"Okay." He said.

Tucker pat his shoulder, "So… that other Danny said that the 7-11 was almost packed with medical supplies… was that bullshit too?" he asked.

"Not entirely." Danny held up a backpack that was full, "I had to cram whatever was in there in this bag." He said. "Luckily there was enough space in here."

"So we don't need to go to the 7-11?" Sam asked.

"And run into another Shifter? No." Danny shuddered, "That last one freaked me out." He started walking. The silence bugged Danny, even the PDA was silent. "I'm sorry I worried you guys." He finally said. "I shouldn't have put you guys through that."

Jazz smiled and put a hand on his shoulder, "As long as you're okay."

"Yeah, at least you're not _really_ missing an arm." Tucker said.

"Was that thing missing an arm when it attacked you?" Sam asked.

"Not at first." He said, "I took it off because he holding a gun to my head." He confessed.

Tucker squinted, "I've never seen a door like that before."

They all looked forward and found the same door he was staring at, "Let's check it out." Jazz said.

"Race ya." Sam smirked. She chuckled, "Come on, let's go!" she started running, as did the others as fast as they could.

Before long Tucker started gasping and wheezing, "Okay…" he panted, "You win…" he stumbled and leaned against a car to catch his breath. His heart, pounding in his ears was deafening to him. In fact, so deafening, that he didn't notice that the car was armed with an alarm. He froze, finally hearing the alarm and hearing the roar of a horde far off. He looked back the way they'd come from in horror and screamed.

Danny stopped at the doorway, being the second to reach it, and turned around to see the swarm of infected that was heading straight for Tucker. He started running and fired at as many of the zombies as he could, looking down for a second to reload and losing sight of Tucker among the infected. He searched frantically. "Tucker!" he shouted.

Sam was close behind him and shot the infect on the left while Danny took out the infected on the right. She looked over at Jazz, who was helping Danny on his side. She quickly thought for a moment, "Jazz! Take over Danny's spot and shoot on the far right, I'll keep shooting on the far left. Danny, you go in there and find Tucker and get him out of there."

Danny nodded and trusted Sam with her plan. Strapping his rifle to his back and equipping himself with his axe, he ran into the horde and chopped away at anything in his way. Doused in blood, he froze when he saw that Tucker was no longer standing by the car. "Tucker?!" she called.

Jazz butted away an infected and thought for a split second, "I'll be right back." She ran into the room that the door led to and found a jar of the green ooze that attracted the zombies to the Boomer's body. She aimed at a building and threw as hard as she could, sending the jar over the building. She looked back over at the horde and continued to shoot until she noticed that the zombies were running toward the jar of bile that she'd thrown.

Danny stumbled after being bumped harmlessly by the infected that ran passed him in a frenzy. He watched them run around the corner and vanish, some of them, tripping over a limp figure on the road in the middle of the mess. For a moment, he wasn't able to recognize the figure, but the familiar yellow sweater and red beret gave him away, "Tucker…" he gasped and ran to him, "Tucker!"

Sam and Jazz shortly met with them and froze.

Danny rolled Tucker to his back, "Tucker, say something." He commanded. After no response, he gently shook him, "Tucker!"

There was a second roar, a deep, growling bellow as the ground shook violently. The conscious three looked up and saw Dash, inhuman and charging right for them.

"Guys." Danny started, eyes not leaving the lumbering figure, "Get Tucker in that room. It's a safe house, we'll take care of him there."

"But Danny-"

"Go!" he snapped.

The girls picked up Tucker and hurried him inside, "What about you?" Jazz asked.

"Don't worry about me, close the door and _lock it_." He demanded, "I'll be back." He grabbed his rifle, "Hey Dash! This way!" he shouted and ran in the other way.

Sam watched Danny run off with the Tank following close behind. She sighed, "He's got his powers." She whispered, "He'll be okay." She turned around to see Jazz take care of Tucker. "Is he okay?"

"Unconscious." She answered, "He really needs a hospital."

"Well, it's the apocalypse, we're the best he's got." Sam said.

Jazz sighed, "I know. But he might have a couple broken bones, and we can't really fix broken bones."

Sam knelt by him on his other side, carefully taking off his glasses, barely being held together, "These are shattered." She said.

"If only we can find out what eye doctor he used to go to. We can find his prescription and see if we find something he can use." Jazz suggested.

"It's going to set us back." Sam said. "It would mean we'd have to turn around."

"But if he can't see what he's doing someone's going to get hurt." Jazz said, wrapping one of the road rashes on Tucker's forearm.

Sam nodded, "You're right." She started bandaging the small cuts on Tucker's opposing arm, "We'll let Danny and Tucker figure it out." She said. "Danny… I guess he's the one in charge."

"It makes sense." Jazz agreed. "He's the one with the plans right now. We're following him."

Danny stood backed into a corner, rifle aimed in front of him prepared to shoot. Dash staring him down with a dead-eyed glare. Danny began getting flashbacks of the football player shoving him into lockers, chasing him down the halls of high school, and even threatening his high school career. On this day, Dash chased him down the streets on the city, thrown him at dumpsters and at cars, threw cars and dumpsters at him, and growled before him now to threaten his life. Danny shook his head took a deep breath, "Dash… I can't believe I'm saying this… but I wish we were back in school right now…" he confessed, glancing at the bullet wounds that Danny thought would slow him down. Never had he been so wrong in his life. "When you were throwing Tucker and I into lockers instead of throwing cars at me and sending your cannon fodder to kill Tucker." He panted, "Chasing me down the hall in rage instead of down the street in savagery."

Dash growled lowly, waiting for Danny to make a move, but stayed still.

Danny thought for a while, the scope still focused on Dash's forehead. His finger on the trigger and ready to pull. He couldn't shoot him. He remembered that Dash was a human being at one point. And then he remembered who one of Dash's friends were. Kwan. Kwan wasn't human when he attacked Sam. They didn't think twice when they shot him. It wasn't Kwan anymore. And this wasn't Dash. He felt a gentle bump. He looked back up and saw that the Tank, Dash, had his forehead against the end of the barrel of the rifle. What Danny could see remaining in Dash's blue eyes were locked on him. Danny's heart skipped a beat when there was a sad, long, miserable groan coming from the beast. With every passing minute of hesitation, the groan began to turn into growling. Then the Tank suddenly roared, causing Danny to tense up and shut his eyes. With a loud thud, Danny shuddered and opened his eyes, seeing that he had shot Dash. Trembling, he crawled over the body and stumbled out of the alley. He grunted and pressed his hand to his side where the Witch had gotten him, finding that he began bleeding again. He exhaled sharply, finding a mist in his breath and shiver go down his spine.

**Okay, a bit out-of-character in this chapter, but in the zombie apocalypse, I'd imagine no one is ever truly the same again. Anyway... new infected! That thing staring at Danny called the shifter is a mannequin-like zombie that watches survivors carefully, waits for the right opportunity when one survivor leaves the group, and takes their place by changing their appearance. Pretty smart infected, however, not enough to realize that they should probably kill the survivor they're mimicing. When the other survivors are right in the palm of the Shifter's hand, so to speak, the Shifter kills them. There are two more infected that I came up with along with a couple of friend. Keep an eye out for ones that sound unfamiliar.**


	6. Chapter 6: Shattered

"What happened around here?" a familiar voice asked.

Danny looked up, seeing Skulker, "Not you…" he groaned. "I'm not in the mood right now."

"I can see that." Skulker replied. "You don't look to be in any fighting condition right now." He said, "I heard a commotion and had to see what was going on. What happened? And where are your friends?" he asked again.

"An outbreak." Danny answered, seeing that Skulker was relaxed and not about to attack any time soon. "Zombies. Just about everyone is dead." He said.

"I see." The armored ghost nodded, "Well, in this case, I'd say undead." He said, "And your friends? Are they gone too?"

"They're in a safe place." Danny said. "One got hurt, I need to see if he's okay."

"The techno one, I assume?"

"Yeah. Tucker." Danny nodded.

"And what of your parents?"

Danny froze. He sighed, "My mom was infected. She… killed my dad." He admitted.

"I see. Sorry to hear." Skulker said, "Recover quickly, Ghost Child." He said, "I'm getting restless."

"Why not fight me now?" Danny asked coldly.

"Because, what's the fun in a fight that I win quickly. I'll let you at least fight for your life first." Skulker smirked and vanished.

Danny watched him vanished and rolled his eyes, realizing that he had a head ache, "Jerk." He rubbed the side of his head, finding more blood on his hand and crusted in his hair. His body screamed at him in pain from the new cuts, bruises and pulled muscles all over his body. He stumbled along and observed the bodies that decorated the street, finding the one-armed Shifter among them, and a small infected with arms longer than its legs and a cut-open smile that put the Joker to shame. "That's a new one." He muttered to himself. He looked back up and saw the red door that Sam, Tucker, and Jazz were behind. His foot skidded against the ground, with the other shuffling beside it. He dropped to one knee and collapsed to the ground. He stared at an apartment building blankly before his vision faded to black.

Sam and Jazz sat on each side of Tucker and waited quietly. They'd gotten him cleaned up and bandaged and all they had to do was wait for Danny to return.

"He's been gone a long time." Jazz said worriedly.

"I'll look for him." Sam stood up and armed herself with her sub-machine gun. She went to the door and peered through the slot that was just about eye level. After scanning the area, she stopped upon seeing a dirty white shirt and damaged jeans. She swung the door open and ran out. She dropped to her knees beside Danny and hesitated to touch him from all the cuts he had, "My god…" she whispered before pulling his arm over her shoulder, "Danny, are you awake?" she asked.

Danny mumbled something unintelligible.

"Good enough for me. I need you to try and stand up." She encouraged. "Come on." She helped pull him up. When he was on his feet, she carefully and slowly walked him back to the safe room. "You're okay…" she whispered and carefully laid him down. "What hurts?"

He mumbled again.

Jazz closed the door and barricaded it, "What'd Dash do to you?" she asked.

Sam furrowed her brows when Danny remained silent. She began cleaning his cuts and wrapping him up. "I hope he got rid of him."

Tucker groaned, "What…" he panted and opened his eyes, "Oh, my face hurts…"

"Your glasses were shattered, some of the glass cut you up."

Tucker groaned and sat up. He looked over and squinted, "Is Danny okay? Is that even Danny?" he asked.

"Tucker, lay back down." Jazz ushered.

"What happened to him?" Tucker asked.

"Dash." Sam said, "He was coming at us and Danny led him away. I assume he killed him."

Tucked watched for a while.

"So what happened? Are you okay?" Jazz asked.

"I got trampled by the zombies." Tucker said, "I'm okay, I'm just sore."

"Anything feel broken?" Sam looked up briefly to ask.

"No. My pride maybe, but that's about it. Irritated that my glasses broke." He said.

Sam finished wrapping up Danny's cuts and scrapes. "Jazz and I were wondering where you got your glasses. If we could find your prescription, we can see if there's a prescription there that either matches or is close enough."

Tucker thought for a while, "Not a bad idea." He said, "My parents actually usually drove me out of town to get them. We'll actually pass the place when we keep going." He said. "We can scavenge the place then." He looked back over at Danny, "So Dash did that to him?"

"Most of it's not his blood." Sam said. "It's zombie blood."

"Right… but he's practically purple." Tucker said, "I can't see him that well, but I can tell that much."

"He'll tell what happened when he wakes up." Jazz said.

Hours later, the three sat with each other and chatted quietly amongst themselves each with a can of food. Sam listened and watched Danny, he hadn't moved an inch and began to worry. She watched him closely, watching his chest rise and fall slowly with each breath he took. She sighed in relief and heard him take a deep breath.

His eyes forced themselves opened and wandered around the room. He finally looked at Sam who sat down next to him and managed a smile. "Everything okay?" he asked.

"We're okay." She smiled, "Are you okay?" she asked.

"Definitely had better days." He said. Jazz and Tucker turned their attention to him. "How's Tucker?" he looked over, "How are you feeling?"

"I'm okay." Tucker said, "Though you look a bit more beat-up than I do right now, I'm sure."

"So what did Dash do?" Jazz asked.

Danny thought for a while, "He caught up with me again, and he threw me at a car. Then he threw cars at me, which most of them I went intangible for. Then he threw me at a couple walls. And finally he cornered me. I made a wrong turn and found myself in the dead-end of an alley. When I turned around, he'd been blocking the exit. And he just stood there. I aimed the rifle at him and just stood there." He said, starting to space out and beginning to look distant. "I couldn't shoot him. And…"

Sam grew concerned, seeing that Danny was emotionally torn by what had happened while they were separated. "Danny, what happened?" she asked calmly.

He looked up at her, "He… he put his head against the rifle." His blue eyes, one marked with a bruise, stared at her in fear, "He _wanted_ me to shoot him."

Realization hit Tucker, "Wait…"

"He… still had a shred of humanity, even after turning…" Jazz concluded.

"Did you do it?" Sam asked.

"He made me. He scared me so I tensed up and pulled the trigger." He said and looked back down.

There was a moment of silence, "At least you don't have to fight ghosts." Tucker said innocently.

"That's the thing. Skulker challenges me after recover." Danny said bitterly.

"You saw him?"

"Yeah, I guess you can call it a 'friendly chat' since we weren't punching each other in the face." He said. "He saw the condition I'm in and decided not to kick my butt now."

"At least he's… considerate?" Sam assumed.

"No, he said 'where's the fun in winning so quickly' and said that he'll let me fight for my life." Danny shook his head.

"Well, at least he's giving you a fighting chance." Jazz shrugged.

Danny sighed, "Why can't the Box Ghost show up or something?" he asked. "Someone I can beat easily and I can vent against."

Jazz handed him a can of food. "Just worry about recovering." She said, "From what I understand, Dash beat you up pretty good." She thought for a moment, "Did you use your ghost powers at all?" she asked.

"I phased through the attacks I saw coming." He said simply, "He was still fast." He opened the can with one of Tucker's throwing stars and began eating the contents as well as everyone else. After eating, they relaxed and tried getting sleep. Danny stayed wide awake while the other three slept peacefully. He began thinking about how he got to where he was now. The second night out in the zombie apocalypse. The outbreak was the morning before and he, Sam and Tucker were seriously injured, he had to put Dash out of his misery, and he was already mimicked by some zombie imposter that was missing an arm. He already missed fighting ghosts. He'd rather fight ghosts than to fight zombies. However, as far as brute force and cruelty went, he didn't know whether or not he'd rather fight Dan Phantom or Dash the Tank. He quickly shook his head. He'd rather fight Dash in that case. Dan was the future he had if he made one bad decision that coincidentally led his friends and family to their deaths. He sighed sadly. He didn't want to imagine his life without them. He was still having a hard time processing that his parents didn't survive the apocalypse. He missed his Dad's rambling about whatever invention he was working on next. He missed his Mom's cooking and motherly touch. But now his Dad was leaning against the door, dead and barely recognizable, and his Mom was one of _them_. If he had to choose, he'd rather fight Dan than he would his Mom at that point. He looked over at Sam and Tucker, both of them asleep and covered in bandages. People he used to know did that damage to them. He looked back up at the ceiling. What waited for them when they escaped the apocalypse? Or were they going to have to keep looking?

The biggest question that laid on his mind however;

"What if we don't survive?"

He sat up and put his head in his hands, shaking his head. He curled his fingers and turned them into fists, gripping his hair and accidentally scraping a cut that he had hidden. Eyes watered, he looked back over at the sleeping three that supported him all along. Those who fought alongside him and kept his spirits up when he was feeling the worst. He sniffled. He couldn't ask for anyone any more supportive. Not even his Mom was as supportive as Jazz. Even when he was being a jerk, they snapped him out of it and kept him in line morally. He didn't want to lose them. He laid back down and turned to his right side, where it wasn't cut up by the Witch. Then winced and rolled back to his back, remembering that Dash had thrown him at a car and Danny broke the side mirror with that side. He wiped his eyes with his forearm and let his forearm rest there for a while. He sighed and moved his arm to rest on his stomach carefully. After the longest time, his eyes began to feel heavy and he finally drifted to sleep.

They stayed in that safe room for three days before deciding they had to leave. On the morning they left- while the zombies were the most inactive, Tucker noticed- they found themselves on the city limits. Danny stood for a while and stared at the sign. He wanted to remember the moment they left. Just in case. He retrieved the PDA that Tucker had given him, surprisingly unscathed from the Tank's onslaught, and held it up in front of him. He took the picture right as Sam, Tucker and Jazz turned to look at him. He brought the PDA down and studied the picture for a while. "Or last moment in Amity Park." He declared sadly.

The others didn't understand why Danny had been acting so oddly. They'd asked him several times, but they never got a solid response, or a response that was longer than two or three words.

"Danny? Are you sure you're okay?" Sam asked.

He closed his eyes and pocketed the PDA. "I'm fine." he said, "Let's keep going."

They looked at each other and let him walk passed them. They followed him. "Do we know how close we are?" Jazz asked.

"Not really," Danny sighed.

_You are going to Wisconsin by foot. You walked for two days and stopped for three, I really doubt you three are much closer._ The PDA remarked sarcastically.

"Well, how far do we have left?" Tucker asked and checked the screen.

_I won't make the Ghost Boy's head explode on this one. I'll just show you._ She said and showed Tucker. He paused and looked up, to see that Danny was looking at him for an answer. "A little more than two-hundred miles." He admitted.

Danny sighed and looked around, "If only we could find a car that runs." He said, "Tucker, you could hotwire it and Jazz, you could drive us." He explained.

Jazz looked around and only saw small sedans, "I'm pretty sure you'd prefer a car that'll kill zombies over a car that'll get killed _by_ zombies." She pointed out.

"True." Tucker said, "Why don't we look for a truck or something?"

Danny turned around for a moment to see his sister, only finding her being dragged off with something caught around her neck, "Jazz!" he barked and ran after her, Sam and Tucker close behind. He straightened up and aimed at what was pulling her back, shooting it with flawless accuracy and causing the creature to burst into a cloud of smoke. Danny looked back down at Jazz and pulled the slimy part off of her, finding her unconscious, "Jazz? Jazz! Say something!" he called. He looked back at the slimy rope and realized it was a tongue, "Jazz?"

She coughed and jumped up slightly, "What happened?" she asked.

"You were grabbed by a long, nasty tongue." Tucker said.

Danny hugged her, "I'm glad you're okay." He said. A shiver crept up his spine and he gasped. "Oh no…" he looked around in a panic.

"What's wrong?" Jazz asked.

"Please tell me there isn't a ghost around." Sam said.

"It's Skulker." Danny said. "He was waiting for me to recover, and apparently I recovered enough." He turned to them, "Hide somewhere."

"But-"

"We don't have the thermos with us and I don't want you guys getting involved." Danny said sharply. "Just hide."

They ran off and ran behind a car that had been flipped to its side.

With a quick blast, Danny was blown off of his feet, dropping his weapons and landing him painfully on his back. He got up and groaned, changing to his ghost form. He kicked off the ground and flew up, seeming like it had been months since he last flown. There was a whoosh behind him that called his attention to Skulker, who sent another blast. Danny went intangible and made the attack miss. He then turned to Skulker and shot a plasmatic ray at Skulker, hitting his shoulder and sending him to the ground. "Can't you see I have bigger problems?" Danny asked irritated.

"What? Fighting the undead? Isn't that what you did in the first place?" Skulker asked back and stood up.

Danny growled, "Whatever." He formed an ice beam and shot it at him.

Skulker shot one of his own energy beams and cancelled out the ice beam, firing another to hit Danny's shoulder and becoming airborne.

Danny grabbed his shoulder and groaned. He went intangible and flew behind Skulker, who hovered cluelessly. He became tangible and sent a punch into the center of his back, sending him to the ground. Upon crashing, one of his jet-like wings snapped off.

Skulker growled and glared back up at Danny, "Get down here and make this a fair fight!" he barked.

Danny hovered down and planted his feet on the ground, "When was the last time you gave me a fair fight?" He asked darkly and threw a punch.

Skulker smirked and caught Danny's fist in his massive hand. Without further hesitation, Skulker threw Danny at a boulder that jutted out of the ground on the side of the highway.

Danny pushed himself to his hands and knees and rubbed his head, that had begun bleeding again. He froze when they both heard a snarl. A Hunter jumped out from behind the boulder and stared at the two ghosts, seeming to be debating which one to attack first. He jumped and attempted to pounce on Skulker. Skulker went intangible and allowed the Hunter to phase through him. He looked at Danny briefly and overshadowed the Hunter.

"You've got to be kidding me…" Danny took a couple steps back as the Hunter, now overshadowed by Skulker, looked up at him with glowing white eyes. The Hunter pounced at him, but only went through when Danny went intangible. Then with a second bound, he hit Danny's back and knocked him forward, shredding his costume and his skin with sharpened claws. Danny screamed and bit his lip in pain. He then phased through the ground and let the Hunter's claws scraped against the pavement. The Hunter looked around and searched for Danny, who didn't seem to be anywhere. Then he let out a loud screech.

Danny actually stood behind him quietly with his rifle in hand, the scope focused on the back of the Hunter's head. From dizziness, his foot shuffled as he took a step forward, snapping the Hunter's attention to Danny. The moment the Hunter opened his mouth to screech, Danny shot.

Skulker was rejected from the Hunter's body and held his head in pain. "That's wasn't fair." He growled.

Danny dropped his gun and fired a plasma ray at Skulker's head, "Nothing is fair anymore."

Skulker stumbled backwards. He glared at Danny and stumbled into several bushes. When Danny rushed over to see where Skulker could've gone, he found nothing. "Okay guys," he rose his voice, "It's-" a sudden weight jumped on him. The small creature leaned forward and made Danny stumble forward, "Get if off of me!" he shouted, trying to pry the creature's hands off of his face "Help!"

Without much more hesitation, Sam jumped out of the hiding spot and hit small infected off of Danny's shoulders with her halberd. She then whipped out her SMG and shot the little zombie. "What the hell was that?"

Danny sat down and held his head, "I don't know… I saw a dead one a few days ago, I just didn't think much of it…"

"That's a Jockey." Jazz said and approached them with Tucker. "Probably best we didn't shoot that one if it's attacking someone."

"That's a good idea." Tucker looked down at Danny, "You okay, man?"

"I'm not feeling good." He said and changed back to his human form.

**Yay! Ghost fight! It's been called to my attention before and I fixed the issue- six chapters into a ghost/zombie fighting story- but never late than never! *triamphant superhero stance* Anyway *normal stance* Bad news if anyone's not feeling good during a zombie apocalypse, and especially bad news if the main character of a story doesn't feel good and he's the leader of the pack, so to speak. So... we'll see what happens next.**


	7. Chapter 7: Driven

Tucker looked around. "Let's see if that truck works." He said and tried opening the door. "Locked."

"Let me try." Danny stood up and phased his hand through the window and pulled up the lock.

"I guess having ghost powers has its benefits." Tucker said and sat in the driver's seat. "Wow… this one's full on gas." He said happily.

"Try hotwiring it." Sam said and stood by Tucker.

While Sam and Tucker worked with the truck, Jazz sat Danny down and bandaged his back and his head. "I didn't know ghosts could overshadow the zombies." She commented.

"Yeah, scared the hell out of me. But it'll probably come in handy. I know what to do if we ever come across another Tank." He grunted when Jazz lightly brushed against the scratches from the Hunter.

"I hope we find another car. We can easily cover two-hundred miles in at least a couple hours." She said, "And you should probably take a break from walking."

"Sounds good." He said blankly.

She watched him for a while, "You look like crap." She stated.

"I feel like it. Thanks for noticing." He said bitterly. He looked up after hearing Tucker swear and Sam start laughing. Tucker had his head against the steering wheel of the car and Sam had the hood of the car up.

"I'll see what the problem is." Jazz stood up and approached the two, "What's wrong?" she asked.

"Full tank of gas." Tucker started.

"Someone stole the battery of this truck." Sam finished and chuckled.

Jazz stood there for a moment, "Who does that?"

"Car batteries actually store decent enough power to turn on a TV if someone knows how to hook it up right." Tucker said. "I've seen it."

"I imagine it doesn't do anyone any good." Sam said, "With practically everyone dead, I really don't think there's anything good on TV."

"Simple solution: DVD players." Tucker said.

"Well, anyway, think we can get one of out one of these other cars? We need to keep going, but Danny's not in the condition to walk." Jazz urged. "Unless you two don't know how to even disconnect and reconnect a car battery."

"I'll do it." Sam rose her hand.

"Okay. Let's hurry." Jazz said.

The three searched the nearby area and found the exact make and model of the vehicle they were trying to work on. Within minutes, the battery was hooked into the truck and it was up and running. They carefully ushered Danny in the back seat and retrieved his weapons. Before long, they were speeding down the road at a seemingly safe seventy miles an hour. Sam and Danny in the back seat and Tucker in the front seat with Jazz.

"They're awfully quiet back there." Jazz commented.

Tucker turned around and found Danny's head was resting on Sam's shoulder and Sam's leaning back, both sleeping soundly. "They're asleep."

"That's sweet." Jazz said.

Tucker turned his attention back to his PDA. "Well, I can imagine Danny's exhausted. The poor guy can't exactly catch a break." He said.

"Well, he just did." Jazz said.

"What do you mean?" Tucker scrolled down and studied the infected they'd encountered.

"We managed to find a truck with a full tank of gas, another of the same model with the battery we need, and one of us knew how to change a battery and we had the tools to change out the battery. I'd say we got pretty lucky."

Tucker paused, "True."

"And we learned that it's possible for Danny to overshadow a zombie." She said.

"That'll come in handy." Tucker agreed. "Say we come across another Tank? We just found our weapon." He said.

"Exactly." Jazz glanced over to see what Tucker was doing, "What're you looking at?" she asked.

"Going over all the freaky zombies we came across." He said, "So far, we've seen nine, but we know what eight of them do."

"What're the ones that we know?" Jazz asked.

"Well, we got the Tank, the Witch, Shifter, Charger, Boomer, Smoker, Hunter and Jockey. And we still have yet to see what the thing Paulina turned into does."

"And I doubt that's all of them." Jazz said.

"Yeah. My biggest fear is that there's something out there bigger and more dangerous than a Tank." He said, "I don't know what we'd do then." He said.

"Not let Danny take care of it by himself again, that's for sure." She said.

"Why bring that up?" he asked.

"Dash was running at us while you were unconscious. Danny told us to run and led Dash the other way."

"Right." Tucker nodded.

There was a moment of a calm, quiet silence. "Hey, Tucker?"

"Yeah?" he looked up at her. Briefly realizing that if they hadn't found superglue and tape, he would've been having difficulty seeing her.

"Were you seeing anyone before the apocalypse?" she asked. "Just out of curiosity."

He watched her for a moment, "No." he looked down, "Girls apparently don't like techno-geeks." He said, then he shrugged, "But, you know, sometimes stuff like that's a little overrated." He cleared his throat, "What about you?" he asked.

She glanced at him, "No. Guys don't like know-it-alls."

"I think it's attractive." Tucker caught himself admitting. Then he tried catching himself, "I mean- the girls at school are airheads. They spend more time and effort into making their hair look good and putting on their makeup than they do studying up on common sense. Their lips end up looking bigger than their brains sometimes." He said. "The smart girls aren't like that."

Jazz listened carefully. "I feel the same way about some of the guys at school. Like Dash. The guys spend most of the time doing bench presses and taking steroids that doing homework and taking tests are completely alien to them."

"I agree." Tucker chuckled. Then he went back to thinking.

She began thinking the same way. "But the smart girls like to make themselves look pretty, too."

"I know. Don't get me wrong, smart girls- I think- are prettier than the 'pretty' girls. Pretty much because the 'pretty' girls put on so much makeup they end up looking like clowns. I'm surprised all that makeup doesn't repel the guys or make their faces droop." He looked back up at her, "The smart girls spend more time with their books than they do with their lipstick but they remember to make a quick visit. So their makeup is moderate and they don't look ridiculous. But then again… most of the smart girls should wear a little more makeup."

"Hey!" Jazz snapped.

_Now you've done it, Foley_.

"Except for you." He threw in, "You're fine with or without makeup." He said, "I wouldn't change a thing about you."

She blushed. "You think I'm pretty?" she asked.

"Uh- yeah." He blushed and quickly looked away.

She smiled and observed the area, "Everything's destroyed out here." She noted.

"Just like Amity Park." Tucker said.

_Well of course. Did you expect the rest of the world to look good if Amity Park looked like shit? No offense._

Jazz glanced back at the PDA. "You know, _I_ have a lot of patience and that thing is starting to piss me off."

_Oh! Shocker! The sister of the ghost boy is just as annoyed with me as he is._ The PDA teased, _What's your girlfriend gonna do, Tucker? Turn me off?_

"No, but I can." He said in irritation and shut down the PDA. He looked up at Jazz, who was staring at him, "It's just for right now." He said, "I'm sure you can tell where the Evac center is." He guessed.

She looked back to the road and remained silent. It wasn't the fact that he shut off the PDA for a change that caught her attention, she'll admit, it's out of character of him, but it was the fact that he didn't argue or deny the idea that they were dating. She glanced back over at him and found that he was starting to drift off. She smiled slightly, "I'll wake you guys up when we get there." She said.

"Okay." He mumbled.

The remaining hour and a half of the trip stayed in silence. Jazz had plenty of time to think. She remembered how much of a seemingly normal day it was when the outbreak went out of control. She was in class. A few students were absent, but with high school, it just seemed that a few kids decided to ditch again. Lunch was normal, the classes were fine. Even the drive home with Danny was alright. Nothing seemed wrong. Then Danny came downstairs and reported that their mother was crying. She studied the machine her father was trying to develop and waited patiently for him to return and to tell her why her mother was crying and what the invention was supposed to do. But then she heard her mother scream and her father scream even louder. Thus starting their apocalypse and orphaning the siblings. Things went downhill quick from that point. Sam got hurt, then Danny got hurt, then Tucker, then Danny again. At the very moment, all three of them slept soundly in the truck as she drove down the road. She looked at the dashboard and realized that she wasn't paying attention to how much gas they had. The truck began sputtering and it slowed to a stop. She sat there for a moment staring at the gauge. "Guys?" she called, eyes staying on the empty meter. "Guys, we're out of gas." She said and looked up.

Sam took a deep breath and looked around, "Out of gas?" she asked.

"Yeah. And we're still not there." Jazz answered.

Sam nudged Danny to wake him up while Jazz woke Tucker. After explaining that they had to walk, they armed themselves and continued walking.

"Tucker, how far are we from the Evac center?" Danny asked sleepily.

Tucker pulled out the PDA and looked at it for a moment, tapping the screen several times before remembering that he shut it off before he fell asleep. He turned it back on, "How much further?" he asked.

_About fifty miles._ She said, _You covered a lot of ground with that truck. Good thinking, kids._ She complimented.

"That better not be sarcasm." Danny said.

"No, she's serious." Tucker nodded and pocketed the PDA. "We don't have too much longer." He said, "We got out of Amity Park on foot and crossed the Michigan-Wisconsin border on foot. We can definitely get out of here." He smiled. "I got a good feeling about this."

There was about five minutes of silence before a rock sailed over Jazz's head. She flinched, "Who threw that?"

"Threw what?" Tucker asked, staring down at the PDA.

"That rock." Jazz stood and stared at it for a while.

"What rock?" Danny asked, lost in his own thoughts.

"That one." She pointed, "It just flew right over my head, it barely missed me."

"Well, we didn't throw anything." Sam said. she didn't see show threw the rock, but she knew it wasn't her or the guys.

There was a cackle before an empty soda can was thrown and bounced off Danny's head. "What the hell?" he rubbed his head and looked in the direction it was thrown from. Being on the far left side of their formation, it wasn't possibly the others- standing on his right side. "Who's there?" he commanded and aimed the rifle.

There came more cackling before several rocks and sticks began flying in their direction from behind a bush.

"Whoa! Hey! Ow! Stop that!" Tucker flinched and covered his head.

Danny shot into the bush and heard a yelp. He approached the bush and saw an infected similar to a Jockey. However, his arms and legs were much longer and its eyes weren't visible. The infected picked up more rocks and threw them at Danny, who ducked and dodged to avoid getting hit. He finally picked up a rock and threw it back at the infected.

The infected looked around for a while and found nothing in front of him to throw. So his upper body twisted around to the point where his torso was facing backwards, but his legs forward. Danny backed away and covered his head from several more rocks that flew at him.

"What is that thing?" Sam asked.

He didn't realize she was right behind him. "I don't know. It looks like a Jockey." He said. A small rock flew and bounced off his head. "That's it." He growled and shot it again, except higher and in the head, instead of just the leg. "We'll call that one a Twister."

"What'd he do?" Tucker asked.

"He threw rocks at us like a tornado. Was that really just one zombie?" Jazz asked.

"It was. That thing picked up a rock, threw it, and threw whatever was in his other hand. Then he twisted his body around like it was no problem." Danny explained, "Like his spine was detached or something."

"Well, I'm writing it down." Tucker said, then looked up, "You _have_ been registering these guys, right?"

Danny had completely forgotten that Tucker had given him a PDA to keep track of things. He pulled out the PDA, then the second half. His blood ran cold and he couldn't bear himself to even try to make eye contact with Tucker.

"How did that happen?" Tucker asked in shock.

"Maybe when Dash threw a car at him." Jazz guessed.

"Or when Dash threw him at a car." Sam said.

"There's so many possibilities." Danny said, "I'm sorry, Tucker."

Tucker pat his shoulder, "It's okay." He said, "I had a feeling you weren't gonna use it. As long as I have this one, we'll be fine. Is that tracker still intact?" he asked.

Danny reached in his other pocket and pulled out the small round device that was given to him in the beginning. "Intact." He smiled.

"Good." Tucker nodded, "Keep it that way. If you go missing we wanna be able to find you."

"I know." Danny said.

They continued walking in silence. They then began to hear gurgling.

"Tell me that's your stomach." Danny looked over at Tucker.

"Why? 'cause I'm always hungry?"

"No." Sam shook her head.

"'cause I'm black?"

"No!" Danny snapped, "Because your stomach is the only one I know that makes that sound."

"Well it's not me." Tucker pouted.

"That's all I needed to know." He began looking around. "What have we come across that make that sound?" he asked.

"Didn't that fat one make that sound?" Jazz asked.

"That sounds about-" Sam started before all four of them were covered in the yellow-green slime that burnt their senses. "Ugh!" she started shaking herself free of the glop.

Danny went intangible and let the vomit drop off of his body. Then he looked up and saw the other trying to get themselves clean.

"Wait- doesn't this shit attract zombies?" Tucker asked.

Danny looked around quickly and saw the infected start swarming. "Group hug!" he called.

"We're covered in crap and you want us to _hug_?" Sam asked repulsively.

"Just do it!" he snapped and wrapped his arms around Sam and Tucker's shoulders, having them wrap their arms around Jazz. He turned them intangible and made the bile drip off of them. They watched around carefully and watched the zombies run in circles around each other and attack each other. He carefully lead them to the side of the road and let them go, fully visible. All four of them pulled out their weapons and began picking off all of the infected that crossed in front of them. Tucker glanced over and shifted his aim to shoot the special infected that had thrown up on them, the Boomer. After everything had cleared up, they continued walking.

"That was disgusting." Jazz shuddered.

"Tell me about it." Sam tried scraping out whatever was remaining in her ear.

"If I get infected, I don't wanna turn into _that_." Tucker declared.

"You won't." Danny said. "I promise." He looked at everyone, "I promise, none of you will turn into _any_ of them." he said. "I wanna protect you guys."

**Okay! So another new special called a Twister. A whole good lot of fun, they are. They have the ability to throw anything and everything within reach and that's about five to six feet from where it stands. Its arms are about as long as its body and its legs are almost the same length. They have the ability to turn their bodies all the way around at least a time and a half. So with their legs in one place, they can rotate their torsos all the around to face you once, then turn all the way around to face away from you. Aggravating, yes. Disgusting, yes. Ridiculously kinda cool, oh hells yes. :3**


	8. Chapter 8: Home Stretch

After what seemed to be forever, they found themselves on the front step to the mansion. They stood in shock and almost in horror. The building was deserted. Dead bodies randomly laid about and barbed wire fences laid toppled over as though someone had knocked them over.

_You have reached your destination._

"I don't like this." Jazz looked at Danny.

He looked her in the eye and nodded.

"Danny, tell me you had a back-up plan." Tucker said.

"Vlad's got a helicopter, and he knows how to fly it. If he hasn't left already, he can pilot us out of here."

"What makes you think he'd help us so easily?" Sam asked.

Danny sighed, "I don't know."

"I know why he _wouldn't_ help us." Jazz said, "If in the irritatingly odd chance his helicopter was destroyed."

"That would suck. Big time." Tucker agreed.

"No, I'm serious." Jazz said, she was the only one who wasn't staring at the door, "Someone tried getting away with his helicopter and crashed it instead." She pointed.

They looked over and mentally slapped themselves for not seeing it before. The crumpled mess of fire and machinery that redecorated Vlad's driveway. They looked back to the door hesitantly, which surprisingly remained on its hinges. "Let's go inside." Danny took a step forward before Sam grabbed his shoulder, "What if it's worse in there than it is in here?" she asked.

He smirked, "Impossible."

Their footsteps echoed in the lobby. "Vlad?" Danny called. "Vlad Masters?" he called. He got a shiver up his spine and he exhaled the icy mist again, "He's here." He said. "Whether or not he's alive, I don't know."

Sam looked around, "It's so clean in here." She noted, "It's like nobody was allowed in here." She said.

"It's creepy." Jazz said.

They wandered around the house before they found themselves in the lounge. There, Vlad laid on the couch with a pillow to his front, covering his chest and stomach. "Children?" he asked weakly, "I… I thought you were dead…"

Danny knelt by him, "Are you okay?" he asked, noticing that he was sweating and was pale. "You don't look so good."

"Your mother…." Vlad started and grunted, squeezing the pillow closer to his chest, "I went to check if you kids and your parents were okay. When I got to your parents' lab, I heard your mother crying," he explained, "I had to check on her. But your- my God, your father-"

"Don't remind me." Danny cut him off, "I saw."

All Jazz remembered was the pool of blood at Danny's feet.

"That should've been warning enough. I asked your mother if she was alright and she- she just growled at me." He groaned loudly and clawed into the pillow, "Then she screamed and attacked me. I couldn't avoid her." He grunted, "Just do me a favor, Daniel," he suggested.

"What?" Danny asked.

"Don't go in my lab."

"Wh-why?" Danny's blood ran ice cold in fear.

Sam, Tucker, and Jazz looked at each other.

Vlad began panting and his eyes began drifting closed.

"Vlad?" Danny glanced at the pillow, mainly to watch for Vlad's breathing, but saw the side pressed to his chest was splotched with red. He pulled the pillow away from Vlad's front and was barely able to tell what anything was. He stared in shock, "Why didn't you get help? Or take care of this?" Danny asked.

"What else did I have to live for?" Vlad asked, "With the outbreak and just about the entire Earth's population dead, there's nothing to aim for if there're no obstacles." He said, eyes half-lidded, "Besides…" his voice had gone soft, "I… gave out all of my medical supplies…" he confessed. "There's nothing here…" his eyes drifted shut, "Even Maddie left…" he whispered. "I'm all alone…"

"You're not alone, Vlad." Tucker said, "We're here."

A small smile stretched on Vlad's face, "Of course…" he said silently. With that, he remained motionless. He didn't tremble, he held the pillow lazily, and appeared to sleep. However, a long, droning cry reminded them of the truth.

"What was that?" Jazz asked.

"It that who is think it is?" Tucker nervously asked.

Danny turned to them horrified, "She followed him." He said, "She's in the lab."

"How could be have possibly followed him?" Sam asked.

"The fastest way between here and my house is though the-" Danny paused and slapped himself, "The Ghost Zone."

"Wait, so you're saying that we just could've gone through the Ghost Zone to avoid all the zombies _and_ get here faster?" Tucker asked.

"We could've gotten here without a scratch." Jazz said.

"And evacuated."

"I get it!" Danny snapped and stood up, "I screwed up. Apparently I didn't think this through all way and it cost us time and almost our lives." He said. He turned and left the room.

The three looked at each other in shock. "Man, I didn't mean to piss him off." Tucker said.

"Neither did I." Sam and Jazz said. They looked down, "I'll go talk to him." Sam said. She walked out of the room, not having to look to hard to find Danny. Following the small drips of blood that trailed on the floor, she found him sitting in his ghost form on an upstairs windowsill that stood wide open. "Danny?"

"What?" he responded bitterly.

She flinched, "We didn't mean to make you feel bad." She said and sat next to him. "Your plan was the best one you had. We didn't exactly think of anything… so we can't even complain." She said. Then she leaned over to look at him, "Is something else wrong?"

He buried his face into his arms, "We couldn't save Vlad."

"But, I thought you-"

"I do. I can't stand him. But besides us, he's one of the last few people left alive and… and now he's dead." He said.

Sam looked down and moved closer to him, then she wrapped an arm around his shoulders. "But we're still alive." She said.

"For how much longer?" he asked. "We stay in this mansion for the rest of our lives until food and supplies run out?" he asked pessimistically. "We can't get evacuated, Sam." He looked at her with reddened, watery eyes, "Everyone's dead. We can't pilot a plane or a jet and I doubt we can find another car."

She put her forehead against his, "We do what we've _been_ doing: fight." She said, "I'd say we'd make a damn good fighting team. We'll just keep looking." She said. "And we'll start with the Ghost Zone. We'll go through portals until we find a place that's alive." She smiled.

He sniffed, "And what if we don't find any?" he asked.

"We'll find something." She said, "With about seven to eight _billion_ people in the world, someone's bound to be alive. Maybe four survivors like us." She said, "That'll double the amount of people part of our team."

He thought for a while. "Good point." He backed away. "But let's rest here for a while." He said. "There should be food, water, we can get cleaned up, some new clothes. Vlad has clothes in my size and Jazz's size, so we can use that." He said. He hovered backwards and stood on the tile. Then he helped Sam off the windowsill.

She hugged him, "Things will get better." She said, "It may not be now, but it will eventually."

"Thanks." He said. Then he grunted and arched back a little bit.

"Your back." Sam gasped and supported him. "Come on, let's get you back downstairs." She ushered. "Jazz, Tucker!" she called and carefully walked him downstairs, "Danny needs help. We need to find medical supplies, now." She instructed, "He's bleeding again."

"Vlad said he gave away all of his medical supplies." Jazz said.

"Let's look for anything we can use then." Sam said.

Tucker and Jazz didn't hesitate any further and turned tail and took off.

Sam carefully laid Danny on the opposing couch from where Vlad laid covered by a throw blanket. She made him looked up at her, "You gonna be okay?" she asked.

He looked at her sleepily, "Yeah, I'll be fine." he said.

She watched him for a while, "I really don't wanna get used to scares like this." She sighed.

He smirked, "Neither do I." he said, "This is getting annoying."

"I bet." She took his hand, initially white-gloved, but with a flash, it was the same human hand she knew. She sat down on the floor next to the couch and leaned her head against his.

"I'll be okay, Sam." Danny reassured her. "I promise." He smiled.

Jazz shuffled through some cabinets while Tucker dug through the drawers in one of Vlad's bathrooms. She closed the doors calmly and looked down. She sniffled.

Tucker heard this and turned around, "Jazz?" he asked and went to her side, "What's wrong?" he asked, finding her eyes were watery and tears were streaming down her face.

"I don't wanna lose Danny too." She whimpered.

"Hey." Tucker snapped, "We're _not_ going to lose Danny. We just gotta keep looking for something to help him and he'll be fine." he smiled, "Besides, he's a Fenton. If I learned anything from your family is that you're stubborn and you won't go down that easily."

She chuckled slightly and wiped her eye, "You really think so?"

"I know. There isn't much of anything that'll kill Danny _that_ easily." He said, "He's gonna be okay."

She thought for a while and hugged Tucker. "Thank you." She said.

He wasn't sure as to what do for a moment. Then he closed his eyes and hugged her tightly. Then he pat her back, "Come on, we need to find medical supplies." He said and let her go.

"Right." She nodded, "Maybe there's something outside. In a panic I'm sure people might have dropped a pack or two. It was a mess out there."

"No kidding." Tucker agreed. "Okay, let's go outside then." He said and started walking for the front doors to the driveway.

Sam was now sitting on the couch and had Danny's head on her lap, one hand on his shoulder and the other gently stroking his hair. She stared at the floor in front of her and thought about nothing in particular.

"Are you okay?" Danny asked quietly.

"I don't know anymore." She said. "I wish I knew where everyone was, and if everyone's alive."

He brought up a hand to his shoulder and held hers, "I'm sure your parents are fine. Same with Tucker's and our friends." He said. They heard the cry again.

"And of course there's her." She said.

"As long as we don't go into the lab, we're fine." he said.

She nodded and watched him for a while. "Where are Jazz and Tucker?" she asked and looked toward the front door.

"It has been a while." He tried getting up.

"Nope." She held him down.

He grunted and stayed still for a moment. "You're not letting me get up, are you?"

"Uh-uh." She shook her head, "You're stuck with me until you get patched up." She smiled.

He smiled and even laughed a little bit, "Alright." He exhaled the mist again. "Of course." He sighed irritated.

"Beware!"

"Oh, okay, good." Danny sighed in relief.

"I am the Box Ghost!" he announced as he appeared, "Fear my-" he looked down at Danny, "My gosh, what happened to you?" then he looked over at Vlad's covered body, "Both halfas? One's dead?" he asked, "What happened?" he asked.

"Did you know there's a zombie apocalypse outside?" SAm asked.

He paused and thought for a while, "So that's what Skulker was talking about…" he marveled, he then landed on the ground and got a closer look of Danny, "He also said that you were weakened."

"What gave you that idea?" Danny asked sarcastically. He rose a hand and swatted at the Box Ghost, "Shoo-shoo."

"Shoo-sh- What the-" he sighed, "Alright, fine. But I will come back." He warned, "Beware!" he shouted before he vanished.

"Oooh…" Danny waved his hands in the air hauntingly and playfully.

Sam giggled, "Well, at least it wasn't Skulker again or Technus."

"Or _anyone_ else." He corrected.

Hours later, they redressed Danny's back and buried Vlad. Finding that the power and water still ran, they decided to take showers and find new clothes. From the collection of clothes Vlad had set for Danny, he found a white, hooded sweatshirt with a pair of tan cargo pants and a pair of tan hiking boots. Jazz, from the collection of clothes Vlad had for her, found a denim jacket and black jeans. Accenting the new outfit with a pair of slate grey boots. Tucker and Jazz sat on one of the couches while they waited for Danny and Sam to finish their showers (separately, of course), and they both remained silent.

"So…" Jazz thought for a while, "Now what?" she asked.

"Who knows?" Tucker shrugged, "I guess we just keep looking. Or stay here." He shrugged. "Who knows now long we can hold out here."

"Right." She nodded and adjusted herself to make herself more comfortable, actually inching closer to Tucker.

He looked over and saw through to her intentions. He leaned over and hugged her.

She paused for a moment and hugged him back, leaning against him and resting her head in the crook of his neck. His hold was firm, but gentle. Almost protective. He leaned back and pulled her with him so she'd rest in his arms.

"So… I guess you knew where I was going, huh?" she finally asked.

"I just hope Danny doesn't get upset about this." He replied calmly, eyes closed and tone gentle.

She smiled, "No kidding." Then she chuckled, "I waited the whole apocalypse just to do this."

He smiled and looked down at her for a while, "You cut your hair." He noted.

"Might be easier to take care of." She said, "Don't want it getting caught on anything." She said.

"It looks good." He smiled.

"Thank you." She grinned, having had a hard time cutting her hair due to the fact that she couldn't see everything she was doing.

Danny stretched and popped his back in three different places, groaning in relief and running his hand through his hair, finding the slightly crusted bump among the wet strands from where he'd been bleeding before. His towel wrapped tightly around his waist as he searched the closet for a new t-shirt and some jeans. Finding a dark pair of jeans and a red shirt with a white oval and trims. Similar to his previous shirt, but reversed. He found a new, clean pair of socks and a pair of black sneakers, replacing his old shoes that were beginning to get holes in the sides. He straightened the shirt and looked at himself in the available mirror. Nodding in approval, he stepped out into the hallway, finding Sam, wearing dark grey jeans, a dark, navy blue tank top, and a pair of white sneakers.

She jolted a little, still wringing water out of her hair and looking down, not sure if he'd care that she wasn't wearing makeup.

He leaned over to look her in the eye. "You okay?" he asked.

"Uh-huh?" she looked up at him hesitantly.

He smiled, "You look good without make-up." He complimented.

She blushed, "Thanks." She said.

He smiled, "Though it's going to throw me off without seeing the purple lipstick." He admitted.

She smiled, "Vlad didn't have any of the make-up for Jazz that appealed to me." She said.

He shrugged and hugged her, "Because as far as girl-types go, you and my sister are almost the opposite." He explained.

"Meaning?" she pulled away and looked at him.

"Neither of you are like Paulina."

She rolled her eyes and groaned in disgust, "Shoot me if I were ever like that. It's just as bad as being a zombie, in my opinion."

He shook his head, "I don't think I could ever shoot you, even if you were a zombie." He hugged her again. "It'd kill me."

She was silent, feeling bad to have put the thought in his head. Then she remembered that it was his mom that was trapped in the lab downstairs. "I don't think I'd have it in me either." She said, "I love you too much to even imagine having-" she paused, realizing what she'd just said.

He pulled away and looked at her, "What?"

"I… I…" she stammered.

He pulled her closer and kissed her on the forehead. Looking back to her, face bright red, he smiled sheepishly.

She pulled him closer and touched her lips to his. After what seemed to be forever, they let each other go and took a deep breath. Hearts racing and heads feeling light, they looked each other in the eyes. They chuckled, "I think we should go meet Jazz and Tucker." He breathed.

"Good idea." She smiled.


	9. Chapter 9: Last Resort

Ears ringing, heart pounding, breathing abnormal, and body screaming. Danny shakily forced himself off of part of a crumpled wall and looked at his surroundings. The front wall of the mansion was destroyed as the lumbering beast they recognized as a Tank rampaged through. Sam, Tucker, and Jazz where nowhere to be seen. He shakily stood on his feet and held his rifle up to aim at the Tank where he stood still. He was glad it wasn't anyone he knew, and even happier that Vlad hadn't turned. So once again, Jazz was right when it came to ghosts not being able to turn. He cleared his throat and put his finger on the trigger. Before he was able to shoot, he felt something burning on his feet and jumped, "What the-?" he yelped and looked at the glowing green, sizzling ooze that was on the ground under his feet.

"Danny! Are you okay?" Sam called and asked from the other side of the yard.

"Yeah, you?" he called back, looking back and looking for the infected that could've left the acid. "Where's Jazz and Tucker?" he asked.

"Over here with me. We're okay!" they snuck around the raging tank and met with Danny, "Look, we know what made that acid. We'll find the zombie. It's whatever Paulina turned to." She explained, "You can overshadow the zombies, right?"

"Apparently, I've never done it." He said.

"We think if you overshadow that Tank over there, you can fight the horde off easier than we can, and they won't attack you." Jazz explained.

"Guys?" Tucker smacked Sam's shoulder, "We got a bigger problem than the Tank." He said fearfully.

It rolled in like a ball. The ball itself was about the size of the Tank, maybe bigger. Then two large, powerful fists popped out of the ball and slammed into the ground. Then a small head and then two legs, twice the size of the Tank's. The parts of the monster's skin resembled cracked rock, or rough asphalt, and they noticed was practically impenetrable.

"Okay, new plan," Tucker turned around, "Danny you- where'd he go?" he looked around.

They heard a bellow, slightly smaller than that of their new infected, and they looked over and found the Tank spinning in circles and grabbing his head in aggravation. Then he calmed down. He looked over at their giant Tank and roared a roar that knocked over any of the common infected that had begun running their way. The roar had an eerie sound to it

"That's the-"

"The Ghostly Wail…" Jazz muttered, then she gasped, "Danny overshadowed the Tank!"

"Now we're talking." Tucker smirked and started shooting at the common infected running at them, "Try not to shoot him." He called.

"Well, duh." Jazz said.

The Tank ran at the new infected and threw a car at him. He roared loudly at him again. '_Let's see what this Bulldozer can do._' He thought.

The Bulldozer growled and picked up the car with one hand and swung it at the Tank like he would with a pillow. The Tank ducked and beat his fists to the ground, freezing the ground quickly and running off. The Bulldozer roared and started running after the Tank, slipping on the ice. The Tank stopped and turned around and threw his weight into the unstable beast, knocking it onto his back. However, with the roughness on his back, he only flipped over and held the Tank down. He began punching the Tank without giving the Tank much of a chance to get up.

The Tank roared once again with the Ghostly Wail and repelled the Bulldozer. As the Bulldozer stumbled back, the Tank got up again and threw his weight into the Bulldozer's stomach. The Bulldozer gripped the Tank's waist and threw him effortlessly at the mansion, knocking over some more walls.

Tucker flinched, "Hey Danny, you mind keeping the meat monster fight _away_ from the mansion?" he asked.

The Tank got up and shook his head to recollect himself. Finding that the Bulldozer was making his way toward his friends. He roared and tackled him away.

Jazz spotted the special infected that had left the acid, which they had called a Spitter, and aimed at her. She fired, once, twice and then the gun clicked. "Oh no." she gasped. She still wasn't able to hit the Spitter.

"What?" Sam looked over.

Jazz dropped the Tactical Shotgun and pulled out her knives, those of which she'd hadn't used until now. She swiped at a close infected and decapitated it, "Someone shoot that Spitter! She's by the fountain." She barked.

Sam glanced at the fountain and barely saw her hiding. She shook her head and reached down for the rifle that Danny had left before he went to overshadow the Tank. She aimed carefully through the scope and shot what she could see of the Spitter's head. Turning the water in the fountain red with a tinge of the neon green. She dropped the rifle and the SMG and picked up her halberd. She walked out into the horde and began spinning and swinging the halberd, killing infected instantly and seemingly effortlessly within a five foot radius from her.

Having found ammunition from the wreckage that only matched his M-16, Tucker kept firing, but picked off infected at the back of the crowd.

The Tank and the Bulldozer wrestled and threw each other to the ground or the wall, unfortunately, unable to stay away from the mansion. The Bulldozer threw the Tank once more and allowed him to crash through the floor of the mansion.

Tucker turned around and began shooting the Bulldozer, finding the Tank nowhere to be seen. He looked down and found a pipe bomb that had sitting by his foot. He activated it and threw it behind him, passed the big crowd of infected. He growled after thinking he missed and threw the bomb too hard, but smiled in satisfaction when the zombies chased the flashing red light of the pipe bomb and blew up with it. "Guys, I can't see Danny anywhere, shoot the big guy!" he barked.

Sam picked up the rifle and let Jazz take the SMG and began shooting at the Bulldozer.

Jazz focused on the Bulldozer, "Guys? Nothing's working!" she called.

"Shoot the soft spots. His chest and stomach." Tucker instructed. He felt a weight jump onto his shoulders and felt steered away, "Jockey!" he cried, "Get it off!" he screamed.

Jazz chased him about halfway down the driveway and hit the Jockey's back with her knives. She started helping Tucker up, "You okay?" she asked before a force charged into her side and she shrieked.

"Charger." Tucker breathed and ran after Jazz.

Sam was left on the front walkway alone with the massive, lumbering Bulldozer walking to her like an ape. The Bulldozer rose his fists and Sam decided she should run.

After the fists hit the ground, he curled into a ball and rolled after her. "Help?" she screamed.

The Tank emerged from the hole in the ground dizzily. He saw the front walkway empty and began running after the ball of calloused skin that rolled after Sam. He ran into the ball and steered it off course and down a hill. The ball popped open and stopped himself from sliding.

Sam and the Tank had a brief moment to exchange a look before Sam ran off to help Jazz and Tucker, who were now trying to locate a Smoker and a Twister. The Tank turned back and was punched in the face by the Bulldozer. He flew backwards and rolled off his back, landing and ending up face-down. He shook his head and stood back up. He roared the Ghostly Wail once more before noticing the once place where the Bulldozer did bleed. He turned tail and ran with the Bulldozer hot on his heels. The Tank looked down and picked up a pole that served as part of a fence and was jagged on one end. Perfect size and length for a Tank to use as a spear. Before the Tank had a chance to turn around, the Bulldozer had hit him again and knocked him into a pile of the broken and bent fences that had been cleaned up by Sam and Jazz the day before.

The Tank forced himself up shakily with growling, ragged breaths. He looked up and found the Bulldozer running at him furiously. He jumped down the back of the pile and let the Bulldozer run into the pile at full force. With the pile being full of broken, sharp, jagged poles, fences and barbed wires, the Bulldozer was trapped. The Tank stood calmly in front of the Bulldozer for a while, watching it struggle and further pierce itself on everything and anything it possibly could in that pile. The Bulldozer finally learned and stopped struggling, panting heavily and taking rasping, bloody breaths. He looked up at the Tank weakly and growled wearily.

Wobbling, the Tank stared at the Bulldozer dizzily. When the fight was over, he was going to sleep and probably won't wake up for several hours. He held the pipe in one hand and had it in front of him, debating whether or not to impale the Bulldozer or to let the Bulldozer die where he was by himself. He thought for a while and decided. He drew the pipe back and sent it into the center of the Bulldozer's chest. He'd rather die quickly than slowly and alone. He stumbled away and looked for Jazz, Sam and Tucker. After spotting them, he realized that a Hunter was about to pounce on one of them. With his remaining energy, he grabbed the Hunter around the waist and threw him as hard as he could, feeling somewhat bad for doing to the Hunter what the Bulldozer had done to him several times.

Jazz, Sam and Tucker panted and heard a loud thud behind them. They turned around and found Danny stumbling toward them. Sam stepped forward and caught Danny when he fell forward, "Are you okay?" she carefully sat down, "That fight was insane."

He panted heavily and tried to regulate his breathing.

"Is it dead?" Tucker asked.

Danny nodded, "He's dead. I had to trap him…"

"What do we call that one?" Sam asked.

"A Bulldozer." He said.

Jazz and Tucker sat down beside them and carefully watched him. Jazz looked up at the Tank's body and saw how it barely stayed together. She looked back down at Danny, "You're not hurt, are you?"

"More so than I was before?" he asked, "No." he answered, "The Tank's body took the beating for me." He said, "I'm just tired, and a little nauseous."

"Where did you go?" Tucker asked, "We couldn't find you for a second."

"I fell-" Danny's eyes shot open and he froze, "The lab." He looked back at the house.

The wail was all the answer they needed. A slender, pale figure wearing a blue-green jumpsuit wandered out of the mansion crying, long claws from each finger caked in blood. The front of the jumpsuit dyed a dark red from blood and medium brown hair hung over the woman's face.

The Fenton siblings froze in fear and shock. Breaths hitched in their throats, as they backed away from a fear that was really fifty feet away from them.

Flashbacks disrupted their thoughts abruptly and rudely.

Danny remembered coming home and remembering his Mom was just sick. Then the next day, and the next day, and the next day, she progressively got worse. Then that fateful afternoon. She sat on her bed crying behind a closed door. He grew concerned and asked his Dad to check on her. He remembered seeing his Mom hunched over on the bed, he remembered his Dad closing the door. He especially remembered the silence, and then the piercing scream that followed, his Dad's agonized cries that thundered from the other side of the door. The fear his Dad must've gone through before he died. His heart pounding and threatening to break out of his chest just as it was now. His blood ran cold and his stomach turned to stone.

Jazz remembered the screams, and going up to see what had happened. She remembered the sight of the blood that Danny stood in that bled from their parents' room. The horrific look in Danny's eye when he saw what remained. Something the sixteen-year-old should never have to experience or even witness. She leaned over and hugged Danny tightly, who didn't even seem fazed.

The Witch stopped in her tracks, eyeing the four huddled on the ground on the other side of the driveway. She began growling. With every second, the growling intensified. She started walking towards them.

"No way…" Sam whispered. She climbed out from under Danny, who laid in Jazz's full support and once again, was so scared he wasn't even aware of the movement directly next to him. Eyes never leaving the approaching Maddie, Sam picked up the rifle she'd dropped and carefully stood up.

Seeing the rifle aimed at her, Maddie snarled and started running at them, now screaming in rage with claws fully outstretched.

Sam thought fast, seeing the claws, she knew they were the claws that killed Jack and Vlad, two men that were closest to Maddie. Those same claws could just as easily kill Danny and Jazz without even a second thought as to who the victims were to the woman. Sam stepped around Danny and Jazz and aimed the rifle.

Maddie was now four feet from them, arm outstretched and prepared to swing the razor-sharp claws.

A gunshot rang though the air.

**My final original Special infected: the Bulldozer. Three times the size of a Tank, and maybe three times the temper. Its rough, armored arms and back make it difficult to shoot it from behind, but shooting stuff from the front isn't alwasy the best idea. And that is the end everyone. I hope you enjoyed this.**

***Bonus! There's a sequel if nobody knows yet!***


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